Sooo, they have a definitive factual location for the holy spirit, in order to scientifically prove sourcing?!?! What total effing crap.

Pure absurdity.

It's published by a Christian rag, so that means the findings are going to be doubtful, but there have been several studies where the brain has been observed while in the middle of a spiritual experience. What it shows is that spiritual events take place in our brains... but they do take place. The brain is the source of these experiences, and it looks to me as if the study is showing that speaking in tongues helps access that part of the brain that triggers a spiritual response.

As someone who used to speak in tongues, anecdotally, I would have to say it doesn't spark that much spirituality. Not enough to get too excited about. Shrooms do a much better job of getting to that spot.

Probably I would be able to find it if I had more time, but following the links on the sources, after 3 or 4 sites i found the link to what should be the original abstract aaaaaand.....

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So no sources, no way to comment

Sorry, but I don't buy that for a second!

I read that it was mental regression resulting in baby babble.

the article says that normal speech centers in the brain aren't activated by speaking in tongues. but it doesn't say anything about what parts of the brain are activated. does this mean that speaking in tongues has no meaning?

WTF

I was concerned that this research comes out of the U of Pennsylvania even though they are siting a 2008 study. The doctor in charge of the study was visiting from The Marcus Institute and Thomas Jefferson Univ. A quick scan of the website for these organizations didn't show a religious bent or affiliation (but mine was hardly a thorough review). Actually, the integrated health approach from The Marcus Institute appeared interesting to me, but again mine wasn't a thorough review, and I am very suspicious after reading HippieChick58's linked article.

I found several bits from the article disturbing in terms of simulating scientific research. An example comes from the openning sentence: "findings from a medical study proving that the practice of speaking in tongues is sourced by the Holy Spirit." The "Holy Spirit" in this case is an assumed entity and not a proven one. Proving anything is source from an unproven entity is impossible to prove making this article false from its initial introduction. Other problems I would believe are serious involve the lack of a clear definition of what constitutes "speaking in tongues" or in "heavenly tongues". How does one differentiate between "heavenly tongues" and someone faking it? Unlike speaking a language such as French or Japanese (as Genessa mentions) we have no standards of any heavenly language and no one can say what constitutes this speak from made up syllables or babbling. Brain scans may detect certain states of brain activity but cannot validate an actual language from nonsense.

I found the interpretation resulting in this statement from the researcher particularly disturbing: "“[The test subject’s] scan showed that the frontal lobe, the part of the brain that controls language, was active when he prayed in English. But for the most part, it fell quiet when he prayed in tongues.”" "Dr. Newberg confirmed this finding saying, “When they are actually engaged in this whole very intense spiritual practice for them, their frontal lobes tend to go down in activity, but I think it’s very consistent with the kind of experience that they have because they say that they are not in charge—it’s the voice of God, the Spirit of God that’s moving through them.”" Why did Dr. Newberg choose to interpret this phemenon as "the voice of God" instead of what would seem a much more like likely explanation that "praying in tongues" is not language - since the language centers of the brain shut down - but randon syllables which may be akin to Buddhist mantras used during meditation sessions. Brain scans of these Buddhists during deep mecitation would make an interesting comparison. Again, however, the concept of God is an assumed quantity with no proven existence. Any conclusion using God would necessarily be based on assumed quantities drawing any conclusion into question - or in other words, it has proven nothing! Snd is highly suspect of being mistaken (to be nice) or on outright fraud.

Finally, why do Christians especially Christian doctors try to mix ancient biblical standards and modern scientific methods? If they want to believe in speaking in tongues, fine. But if they want to really follow the Bible, they should abandon MRI and PET scans, vaccines (no, please don't), etc. and they should revert back to exorcisms, laying on of hands, and whatever other archaic medical practices endorsed in the Bible. Science - Real science - has provided up with the most actual knowledge about our world - how it works and how it doesn't. Religion has more often stood in the way of this progress and has added little if anything at all to the body of knowledge of our world and ourselves.