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It is my belief that most of the tongues currently practiced is self delusion. I know that is a hard statement, but it is not one that I have come to easily.
Okay, honesty is a good thing. I percieve you have spent some time looking into the issue. How did you come to your conclusion that tongues are delusional?
Yes I have spent a lot of time looking into this. Many family members and close friends speak in tongues, I do have to be a little careful in our discussions because they are very easily offended by my belief that they are deluding themselves. I am a sincere christian and not an unbeliever at all.
I have had people lay hands on me to receive the "gift of tongues" two times. Both times I prayed that God would give me this gift if it was really from him but keep it from me if it wasn't. I refused to prime the pump (in one case I was told to start making sounds and then the Holy Spirit would take over).
I have listened to many people speak in tongues. None of the speaking sounds like a language at all. It all sounds like babble with nothing intelligible. I am absolutely convinced that a person could go to one of those services and with some practice do a bunch of babbling and no one would know the difference. I am not willing to do this myself because it would be mocking the others in the service but that fact enforces my belief that this can be delusional.
I have talked to many people about how they received the "gift of tongues" and in most cases it was something they strived for earnestly and desired so much to get that they tried real hard to start speaking in tongues. Also, in almost all cases they were very emotionally ready, (in other words they were in a highly emotional state). They were already convinced that this was a real gift from God. Since they are already convinced it is real and all the others around them are convinced that it is real the conditions for self delusion are extremely high.
Once they actually start speaking in tongues and do it publically or tell others that they are speaking in tongues privately they have a personal stake in it being real. So even if they have some doubts they tend to put them down because they are now committed.
I look back to how the tongues movements started and see meetings of extremely high emotion, powerful preaching, and leaders that I have to classify as unsteady.
Tongues speaking is practiced by other religions and cultures and it sounds the same.
After adding all this up, my personal experiences, my familys experiences, the fact that you need to be in a highly suggestable state of mind, the fact that it can be so easily faked, the questionable leadership in the origins of tongues, the fact that the only evidence that it is real is the word of the practicioners, the fact that other cultures also practice it and receive it in the same way, the questionable way it is used in most of the services I have been in, I make the personal conclusion that it is not of the Holy Spirit. I realize that this is a subjective conclusion because the above is all I have. On the other hand, the believers have even less...they have their experience.
After reaching the conclusion that it is not of the Holy Spirit I began to wonder if it was demonic. Although it could be demonic in some cases I don't think it is in most cases because I don't see the other signs in the personal lives of the practicioners that lead me to believe it is demonic. In most people who practice tongues I see a sincere desire to follow the Lord. They may be deluded in this regard but one of the reasons they are deluded is that they have such a sincere desire to follow God. And they continue with this sincere desire. So I don't think most of it is demonic.
After studying other people that are also deluded in their belief, (water witchers are one example), I began to see how easily it is for us to begin to believe something that isn't true and then cross the line to have a stake in that belief. Once we cross that line to where we have a stake in the belief, we will block out all evidence to the contrary and continue to delude ourselves.
I could go into this more but I am rambling and so will quit for now.
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