Research Suggests Praying in Tongues May Sharpen the Brain

Is praying in tongues really that good?

People say that the longer you pray in tongues, the more peaceful you feel. Worry decreases. Problems get solved. Illnesses heal. Money problems and relationships get sorted out. Of course, testimony alone isn't evidence. So researchers actually studied speaking in tongues.

Stress goes down

Researchers found no increase in mental illness or loss of touch with reality among believers who speak in tongues. In one study, levels of the stress hormone cortisol dropped significantly after praying in tongues (an average drop of 16.3 ng/ml in the intervention group vs. 0.4 ng/ml in the control group). The testimony "I feel at peace" was confirmed in blood levels too.

Focus improves

In 2020, a research team at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland scanned the brains of 30 highly experienced tongues-speakers. People who had spoken in tongues for a long time had thicker gray matter in the frontal pole region. The same thing is seen in experienced meditators and skilled musicians. Their brains looked like those of people with long training in concentration.

Learning ability improves

In a Hungarian study the same year, believers who spoke in tongues showed higher "statistical language learning" ability than believers who didn't. This is the very ability babies use to learn language, and one that's known to improve with playing instruments and learning foreign languages.

Even AI can't figure out its meaning

After analyzing many recordings of tongues, linguist William Samarin found syllables, rhythm and consistent patterns. But there was no grammatical or semantic system. Whether that's to keep the devil from understanding, I can't say.
Still, people with the gift of interpretation sometimes write down words in a notebook and grasp the meaning.

What many traditions let go of, Pentecostals picked back up

Perhaps some churches threw away something very important.
Maybe someone should study whether it's because their leaders never learned to pray in tongues.
After all, whatever I can't do must be unnecessary, right?