Xenoglossy
Xenoglossy ( from Greek: xenos ξένος ( foreign) and glossa γλωσσα (tongue, language )) is the ability to speak a foreign language without having learned it. In the religious and esoteric context is reported on this phenomenon. Sometimes it is also said that xenoglossy occurs under hypnosis. This term was coined in the early 20th century by Charles Richet ( "Thirty Years of Psychical Research ", 1923).
Explanations
The simplest explanation is an unconscious memory ( cryptomnesia ) of the person in foreign languages, idioms, who has heard this sometime. Another examined in parapsychology hypothesis is the reincarnation, in which is the language xenoglosse reminder remains of a learned language in a previous life. Main representatives of this research is the Professor of Psychiatry Ian Stevenson. In particular, the "reactive" ( responsive ) xenoglossy, in which on any questions in the foreign language spontaneously meaningful answers are given (with additional vocabulary), is used to substantiate this possibility. But report first linguistic analysis of criticism. However, the scientific study of xenoglossy has barely begun.
Xenoglossy in Christianity
In the Bible there are in the book of Acts in connection with Pentecost a xenoglossy event. Acts 2.4 to 13 EU: according to the report, the apostles and their companions were met during the weekend festival in Jerusalem with the Holy Spirit and party-goers from a variety of areas they heard in their own language to talk about what the one hand amazement aroused and the other as drunkenness viewed been.
Xenoglossy should not be confused with the particularly widespread in the Pentecostal glossolalia, where worshipers also speak in an incomprehensible language, but neither she nor anyone expect to understand what is being said.
However, there are also anecdotal reports of xenoglossy. So writes the nichtcharistmatische New Testament scholar Nicholas Thomas Wright in his interpretation of the book of Acts that there were well- attested cases both in antiquity and in modern times, where Christians had spoken of a sudden inspiration in them entirely unknown language and then discovered that one of those present understood. He met people where it was met, and I have no reason to assume that they want to deceive themselves or have him.
Ian Stevenson and the case " Gretchen "
The case Dolores Jay ( also case Gretchen ) is an unexplained case of hypnotic reincarnation type with German xenoglossy.
1970 hypnotized the American Methodist Pastor Jay Carroll in Mount Orab (Ohio ) his wife Dolores ( * 1922 ) to treat their back pain. They spoke German xenoglosses. When running a full session three days later for the first time occurred Gretchen Gottlieb, the 19 recorded hypnotic regressions of her life as a daughter of the mayor of Eberswalde, Hermann Gottlieb, reported and who died at not quite unambiguous way at the age of 16 years.
In September 1971 Ian Stevenson took the German language itself, for the first time in a session. He examined the phenomenon until 1974 and brought the case to the public. Stevenson was also present, as Dolores Jays was interviewed on February 5, 1974 Richard Archer in New York with a lie detector. After 1974, could be held no more regressions (given the criticism from the Christian community ).
Stevenson explored later Dolores childhood in Clarksburg (West Virginia). A German ancestry was found only in a very small extent ( great- great-grandparents of Dolores Jay emigrated before 1847 from Germany to America a ). Indirect evidence suggests that the last quarter of the 19th century as the time when the Gretchen - incarnation, they should be real, should have taken place.
The philosopher Paul Edwards is one of the main critics of Stevenson. His verdict: " Stevenson's main problem is that he wants the ( alleged ) cases of rebirth not explore, but prove".
The linguistics professor Sarah G. Thomason criticizes the results and their interpretation made by Ian Stevenson, in particular in the case of " Gretchen ". Thomason stresses that Stevenson was careful and cautious in its investigations and any deception charge is eliminated. But she holds his approach methodologically and linguistically wrong and therefore wrong. Among other things, it is criticized:
- The experiments were carried out by people who believed in reincarnation himself, and the answers were free as right / wrong interpretable ( experimenter effect).
- The questions were repeated in English, if Gretchen did not answer immediately on the German question.
- The biggest question group consisted of simple yes / no questions, which can be 50 % correct responses in guessing the reply is expected.
Go to language learning in general provides Thomason stated: " One can not talk in a language if you do not know and has not talked about a fairly long period of time on a regular basis. " In his native language a person has a vocabulary of up to 10,000 words and mastered the basic grammatical rules. Can communicate coarse one with 400-800 words. Gretchen, however, used in the talks only a little more than 120 German words - and that includes words that are acoustically similar in English and German ( " brown" ). Grammatical skills are with her almost never seen as it responds normally only one or two words. Much of Gretchen German is spoken as a native English speaker would read German. One also finds in its favor the known pattern that it is better understood as a ( forgotten ) language as it is spoken ( passive and active vocabulary).
Stevenson admits that the " talks" with his subjects with a "normal" conversation had very little to do. An example:
Stevenson evaluates this answer as "correct " as it stands in a whatsoever relating to the question. Thomason, however, considers this question is not answered correctly. Incidentally, the word " room " in a literal translation from the English way ( "bedroom "). The question of whether a paranormal explanation is necessary for Gretchen's knowledge, is in the negative: " You speak the language at best as good as someone who twenty years ago once a year had German lessons. "
There are other points, or thought-provoking: The information Gretchen over the city Eberswalde could not be verified ( for example, there were no mayor named Hermann Gottlieb). What does it say about Martin Luther and religious persecution, even keeps Stevenson unrealistic. And the name choice is striking: while " Gretchen " (pronounced / Gri: tschn / ) is a popular first name in the U.S., he is in Germany actually only the Rufform of " Margaret " With a girl from supposedly 16 years, knowledge of the be your own name, make sure assuming was in Stevenson's Gretchen but missing.