The phrase “speaking in tongues” sounds mysterious, doesn’t it? An esoteric ability, speaking in tongues is most frequently examined through a Christian lens, which defines it as the channeling of the Holy Spirit. The truth is that hundreds of cultures employ tongue speaking, or the channeling of divine and foreign languages. After all, everyone is related to the Spirit, and the Spirit can relate to anyone.
In this chapter I’ll briefly explore both types of tongue speaking: divine speaking and language speaking. I’ll provide examples of both styles and present exercises for awakening and practicing this clairaudient gift. Who knew this amazing capability lies inside each of us?
Two Versions of the
Same Channeling Gift
Technically, speaking in tongues is a form of channeling, although it differs from classical channeling in that you are much less interactive with the source. You might not even understand the source. For example, when divine speaking, you basically serve as a channel for the highest forms of spiritual beings, even the Spirit itself. Neither the Spirit nor angels need to speak in English. When language speaking, you either speak in a foreign language or with a foreign accent. In the former case, you’ll probably not understand a word. Both forms of tongue speaking, however, can leave you changed and enriched.
After describing the two types of tongue speaking, I’ll present an exercise for each. Both exercises will help you “untie your tongue,” or loosen the strictures of language, so you can serve as a speaker for unknown languages. Fundamentally, speaking in tongues invites new and inspiring energies into your life.
Divine Speaking
Technically, divine speaking is called glossolalia. Glossolalia involves emitting “ecstatic utterances” that contain a supernatural message. Usually the medium is in a blissful state and the communications are believed to come from the Spirit, angels, or other advanced spirits.
Most of the time, the speaker and any listeners don’t understand the spirit-based messages. In other words, the words, tones, chants, or songs are often considered gibberish, albeit celestial gibberish.
As pointed out, most Westerners link divine speaking to Christianity ever since the Holy Spirit fell upon Jesus’s followers during Pentecost. The believers were then “filled by the Holy Spirit” and began to speak in tongues as the Spirit enabled them (Acts 2:4). Churches around the world have continued teaching and inviting tongue speaking, specifically the divine-speaking variety, mainly because tongue speaking is considered a way to let God speak through you. And even though most divine speakers don’t understand the channeled expressions, the Bible suggests it would be good to do so. As stated in 1 Corinthians, tongue speakers should share “one at a time, and someone must interpret,” otherwise the speaker should keep the communication between themselves and God (1 Corinthians 14: 27-28). The latter point suggests that although modern tongue speakers might not comprehend the message, it’s possible to do so.
Divine speaking is not only a Christian feat, however. It’s practiced amongst shamans in Sudan, the Shango in West Africa, the Zor in Ethiopia, the Voodoo in Haiti, and the Aboriginals of South America and Australia, among other cultures and countries (gotquestions.org,“What Is Glossolalia?”). I’ve heard tongue speakers in Peru, Costa Rica, Morocco, Venezuela, Mexico, and other places. In exercise 8 I’ll outline several stepping-stones you can walk upon to bring through and maybe even understand a divine language.
Language Speaking
Every so often, a news article spotlights someone who suddenly started speaking in a foreign language or with a foreign accent. Medically, the phenomenon is called the “Foreign Language Syndrome,” and it usually appears in individuals who have suffered a traumatic brain injury or awakened from a coma or have gone through some other unusual precursor, such as a near-death experience. Examples include a Malaysian student who awoke after an accident speaking four new languages, and a young Croatian girl speaking German after being roused from a coma. Although German was her second language, upon awakening she lost her ability to speak Croatian.
Experts believe that the source of Foreign Language Syndrome is damage to the left side of the brain, in particular to the language areas. However, other experts assert that when the symptoms involve only a change in accents and there isn’t a brain injury, the cause is genetic mutation (Callaway 2009).
We don’t need to be hit on the head or undergo a trauma to potentially perform language speaking, which is technically called xenoglossy. Our clairaudience can serve as a tool for speaking in another language or an unusual accent. I know an intuitive who speaks either in a British accent or Sanskrit when working. Her clients can understand the British accent but not the Sanskrit, which she can only comprehend if she performs receptive channeling and asks a guide to interpret the message. A student of mine dreams in the language of the star Antares (a star in the Orion constellation), which she understands implicitly. Both women believe that they used to speak in these languages in previous lives.
Why can we access a foreign language or accent? We might have spoken the articulated language in an earlier lifetime. We might already be conversing in a different language or with an accent in a parallel life. Then again, we might be connecting into a language template through the backside of our fifth chakra, which adjusts our vocal configurations.
Another option is that we’re employing our epigenetics. Epigenes are the chemical soup that surround our genes and hold our ancestors’ memories, disease patterns, and reactions to events. It’s possible that subtle or traumatic energies can activate an ancestor’s language and voilà, we can access it.
As well, we might connect with an entity from another culture and duplicate their language or accent. This process can involve full, partial, or receptive channeling. For example, I have a client who is instructed by an invisible guide that speaks Chinese. Although my client doesn’t understand Chinese, she can mimic the guide’s words. She has to have a Chinese-speaking friend interpret the words for her, however.
Why should we try to speak in tongues? Words are symbols that come alive when vocalized. Every language expresses through a unique cadence and rhythm that conveys mental meaning but also delivers subtle energies. You might hear the word “mountain” in German and feel bigger and more powerful. Listen to the word in Greek and you’ll want to climb the mountain. The energetics of different languages affect us differently and attune us to various aspects of our personality.
Want to practice both types of speaking in tongues? It’s time to play.
Exercise
When performing glossolalia, or divine speaking, we receive a message from the Spirit, an angel, or another highly conscious being. These beings speak in what I call the “language of love” or the “language of light,” whether the utterances consist of prose, poetry, song, or some other sound. We can sometimes translate a divine message into our own language so we can understand it. I’ll share both steps in this exercise.
Step 1: Prepare. Decide if you want to divine speak by yourself or direct the channeling to another person. It can be easier to have a friend present as this person can remember what you share. With someone or alone, settle into a quiet place and make sure you won’t be disturbed.
Step 2: Perform Spirit-to-Spirit. Acknowledge your personal spirit, the helping spirits, and the Spirit. Let the Spirit fill you with angelic love and serenity. Loosen your body, close your eyes, and imagine pictures of light, angels, or other beings of love. Let the Spirit shift you into the appropriate trance or brain state.
Step 3: Open Your Mouth. The key to speaking in tongues is to open your mouth and start making sounds and noises. Babble. Gurgle. Hum. Simultaneously, imagine that the Spirit or a being of light stands behind you and sends sounds from the language of love and light through the backside of your fifth chakra, which is at the rear of your neck. Keep verbalizing while strands of paradise strum through you. Relax into the process and continue to vocalize.
Step 4: Look for Repetition. After several minutes you will notice repetitive sounds. As soon as this occurs, know that you are divine speaking.
Step 5: Give In to the Flow. Fall further into a trance state and feel the streams of energy pouring through every part of you. As you continue vocalizing, sense the energies in your bones. If you feel like moving, do so. Bask in this current of love as long as you desire. If you feel like it’s enough to simply channel this language without comprehending it, move to step 7 when ready. Otherwise, perform the next step.
Step 6: Translate in Your Natural Language. Still uttering the divine sounds, ask that the Spirit transcribe the spiritual language into your natural language. You’ll sense the Spirit interacting through the backside of your fifth chakra or in your brain to perform the translation. Simply continue speaking until the words become recognizable.
Step 7: Close. Your vocalizing will wind down organically. Spend a few minutes in the ensuing stillness, confer with a companion if you have one, and then return to your everyday reality.
Exercise
Clairaudient Language Speaking
As shared earlier in this chapter, there are two main ways to experience language speaking. One is to stimulate the shift inside of yourself. Quite specifically, you can awaken the language part of your brain, receive spiritual energy through your fifth chakra, open to a language from a past life self, or bring through a language coded into your epigenetic material. The second major way to access a different language is to channel an external entity.
This exercise will guide you through all the just-shared processes. I’ll help you understand what you are speaking if you conduct this exercise alone. It can be easier, however, to have a person assist you. When speaking in tongues, we have to strike a balance between letting go and being aware. If you want, select a person to guide you through these steps and instruct you on the way.
Step 1: Prepare. Find a quiet space and make sure you won’t be disturbed. If you are with a trusted partner, ask that they too be silent. If you want, give them the job of reading these steps aloud so you can follow them. Now allow the Spirit to shift you into the most beneficial trance or brain state.
Step 2: Conduct Spirit-to-Spirit. Acknowledge your own spirit, that of the helping spirits, and the Spirit.
Step 3: Internally Open to a Different Language. Ask the Spirit to activate your internal ability to speak in a different language or foreign accent in whatever way is correct for you. You might feel a part of your brain awaken, sense a flow of spiritual energy through your backside fifth chakra, feel a past life self activate, or become aware of the stirring of your epigenetic or ancestral material. Loosen your mouth and tongue and begin to hum, chant, or babble. Let your sounds free-flow until you sense that a language or accent is emerging. Don’t fixate on the language; simply utter the sounds.
Continue with this outpouring and then ask the Spirit to change the language or accent into your own language so that you can hear the meaning of the message just shared. This alteration might occur slowly or quickly. Just keep speaking until the transference has completed and you run out of words. (Your assistant can also write down the translation of what you are speaking.)
When silent, ask the Spirit or your gatekeeper if there is a reason that you were able to access that specific language or accent. Have you ever spoken it before? Has an ancestor? Did that language alter you in some sort of beautiful and subtle way? What ultimate message are you to glean from this process? Let these answers come through your clairaudience from the Spirit or your gatekeeper and then either move on to step 4 or 5 when ready.
Step 4:: Connect with a Foreign Entity. Take a few deep breaths and allow the Spirit to link you with a foreign-speaking entity. Qualify this source using the tips you’ve learned in the last three chapters. Then employ full, partial, or receptive channeling to hear the being speak within your mind. See if you can understand what is being shared, then open your mouth and ask the Spirit to establish you as a conduit for the message. You will literally speak in the language or with the accent of the source.
Now ask the Spirit to shift the foreign language into one that you can recognize. Ask that the source repeat itself or add new information to this understandable tongue speaking until you run out of words. Then spend a few moments in reflection.
Step 5: Close. Ask that healing streams disconnect you from all entities and energies used in this exercise, and rebalance your personal energy. Ponder what you’ve learned for a few minutes before returning to your life.
Additional Tip
Sounding Yourself Open
Return to Chapter Two’s section “Tones for Attunement” on page 93. Before beginning either exercise, chant the fifth chakra seed syllable and then run through each of the chakra sounds from one to seven. Return to the fifth chakra seed syllable and vocalize it for as long as you want. Sing these “scales” over and over to loosen up your throat for tongue speaking.
Questions for Assessing a
Clairaudient Communication
These questions can help you with speaking in tongues.
- Is it appropriate for me to speak in tongues?
- If it is, should I open to the following:
- divine speaking?
- language speaking?
- from inside myself; if so, through what means?
- brain part?
- fifth chakra stimulation?
- past life self?
- epigenetic material?
- by channeling an entity
- How can I best understand tongue speaking?
- After performing a tongue speaking, what is my takeaway?
Summary
Speaking in tongues involves bringing through an unknown language. There are two styles that employ this clairaudient channeling process. Glossolalia, or divine speaking, relies on channeling a spiritual language. Most typically the syllables or sounds uttered aren’t understandable, but some people are able to interpret the messages. Xenoglossy, or language speaking, invites communicating in a foreign language or with a foreign accent. You learned how to perform both styles in this chapter.