"The beasts they howl her song
Told to be unchained at the day of doom
Their random laws, taught by the Gods
Are to be redeemed when He sets sail
There will forever be this ancient tounge
Primal wisdom from natures own longue
Count the shores of the utter coast
And fear peace forever most
When time is ripe to revive the past
Let us see who stands triumphant
The echoes of cosmic strife
Borne to the one-eyed man
By the ravens of reminiscence"
from Borknagar, “A Tale Of Pagan Tongue” (The Olden Domain)
The oldest account of tongues goes back as far as 1100 B.C. to the Byblos Osiris cult. Tongues have been used by the Tibetan monks, certain north American Indians, the halide Indians of the pacific northwest, the aborigines of Australia, the aboriginal peoples of the sub arctic regions of north America and Asia, the corianders of the ands, the dyads of Borneo, the Chaco Indians of south America, shamans in the Sudan, Siberia and Greenland, and in various cults (voodoo in Haiti, zoo in Ethiopia, tango on the west coast of Africa, sago in Trinidad; many of these with rituals centered around spirit possessions. The Gnostics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Quakers, Shakers, Seventh-day Adventists, Christian Scientist, and the W. Church of God all employ tongues.
John P. Kildahl’s concluded in his 1972 study “The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues” that "from a linguistic point of view, religiously inspired glossolalic utterances have the same general characteristics as those that are not religiously inspired." Glossolalia then is a purely "human phenomenon” and is “not limited to Christianity nor even to religious behavior." (Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements by Spittler, P. 340)
Felicitas D. Goodman, the psychological anthropologist and linguist, compared tape recordings of non-Christian rituals from Africa, Borneo, Indonesia and Japan. Goodman came to the same conclusion: "when all features of glossolalia were taken into consideration--that is, the segmental structure (such as sounds, syllables, phrases) and its suprasegmental elements (namely, rhythm, accent, and especially overall intonation)-- there was no distinction in glossolalia between Christian and pagan religions and that glossolalia "is, actually, a learned behavior, learned either unawarely or, sometimes consciously.”
(From "Speaking in Tongues: A Cross-Cultural Study in Glossolalia" by Felecitas D. Goodman, University of Chicago Press, 1972)
Indeed, people are carefully instructed on tongue speaking during the LIFE IN THE SPIRIT SEMINAR.
