What does it mean when people say someone was speaking in tongues? Essentially what it means is that some strange feeling of euphoria, or some other equally strong sensation came over the person and they began to speak in languages that they have never studied before. Many Christian groups maintain that someone who feels themselves to be born again will fall to the floor and begin speaking in tongues as a sign that some higher power has entered their body. A closer examination of what is actually being said usually reveals that it is gibberish and nonsense, but religion maintains that speaking in tongues is a sign that a person has been touched by one deity or another.
Another popular setting for speaking in tongues is during a ritual designed to reach into and contact the spirit world. People professing to be mediums between this plane of existence and then next who use crystal balls and blue diamonds, will begin to speak in a language that no one understands to indicate that they have made contact with the other side. It should be noted that a medium of Spanish decent who suddenly yells out phrases in Spanish is not speaking in any kind of mystical language. They are just yelling in Spanish. For some reason, many mystics and psychics maintain that blurting out phrases in what can seem to be an uncontrolled manner is the same sensation as speaking in tongues. It would appear that those experts seem to miss the point of speaking in tongues.
The Christian Bible mentions the act of speaking in tongues more than 30 times, which makes it a sizeable reference even for a book as large as the Bible. Because only people that seem to be touched by an overwhelming spiritual feeling are prone to speaking this strange language, many religious groups have come to call the act of speaking in tongues the process of using the actual language of God and Heaven. It is curious that when a construction worker drops a heavy load of bricks on his foot he seems to speaking in some manner of other worldly communication as well, but it can be argued that the sort of language being displayed in that case comes from a place other than Heaven.
It appears that speaking in tongues is a matter of faith. If someone is so deeply committed to their religion that they feel the need to writhe around on the floor speaking gibberish, then all we can really do is watch. One thing is for certain, there will be no one there to translate for us.
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