08 Physiological-Psychological Aspects of Gift

Chapter 8 Physiological and Psychological Aspects of the Gift IN our review of some of the historic appearances of the gift of tongues, certain facts of a physiological and of a psychological nature have forced themselves upon our attention.

We have noticed that the manifestation of the tongues has always begun with an individual in whom the presence of some disease can definitely be traced. The indisputable nature of this fact is obvious if we turn our attention toward the leading characters in the three sects which we have discussed at length, the Shakers, the Irvingites and the Mormons. The physiological life of Mother Ann of the Shakers would afford an interesting study for those who are interested in the bodily condition of the semi-insane. Mention, however, should be made of her fastings and her ability to fast, her hallucinations, her bloody sweats, her difficulties in childbirth, the early deaths of all her children, and her poverty conditions all of which point in the direction of an unstable nervous system. When we add to these considerations the fact of the statement made repeatedly about her that she had acted "like a drunken squaw," that she was insensible to fatigue in dancing, and a multitude of similar facts, we cannot but be convinced that we are dealing not with spirituality per se, but with disease.

We are to remember that Edward Irving never professed to have the gift of tongues. We are to remember further that among the Irvingites the gift of tongues began first with the Macdonalds and Mary Campbell, and that Margaret Macdonald, her brothers, and Mary Campbell were tubercular. We have the further right to infer from the case of Isabella Campbell and Story’s account of Mary Campbell and her family, that Mary Campbell was of the hysterical type. We may remind ourselves also in passing that the daughter of Robert Baxter was subject to epileptic seizures.

Professor Riley has pointed out the pathological elements which are readily discernible in the life of Joseph Smith, Jr., the Mormon prophet. The shiftlessness and vagabondage of his father, the diseased blood of the Macks on his mother’s side, do not constitute the sort of ancestry from which we might expect health bodily or mental to spring. It is well also to call to mind the part which the Rev. Sidney Rigdon played in the development of Mormon ecstacy, and to take into account the fact that:

"He brought to his aid (in preaching while still a Campbellite preacher) the eccentric and grotesque workings of a nervous and enthusiastic temperament, which at times threw him into spasms and swoonings, similar to those nervous agitations which have so often prevailed, not only in individual instances, but raged as epidemics both in and out of the churches. These nervous fits he interpreted into the agony of the Holy Spirit as multitudes had done before him, and contended that the miraculous spiritual gifts of the apostolic age were now about to be restored to the church." * Attention must also be called to the fact that the tongues never occur as a solitary unusual motor phenomenon 1 Turner: op. cit., pp. 24-5. regarded as having a supernatural origin. If we find the gift of tongues, we find also the gift of the interpretation of tongues, the gift of miracles, or the gift of prophesying, together with a great number of "exercises" of a motor nature. Laying aside the question; of the interpretation of tongues, which may be dismissed as a case either of downright fraud, or possibly of pathological lying, 1 we deal invariably in the cases of the subjects of the gifts and exercises with persons of diseased nervous systems. The “falling exercise" was one of the phenomena of the Kentucky Revival as well as of the tongues people. Those who were "stricken of the Lord" lay on the ground as though dead. It is said that the numbers of those stricken ran into the hundreds. The persons thus signally afflicted lay on the ground sometimes for hours before regaining consciousness. Similar conditions could be observed among the Shakers in connection with their worship. The spectacle of men and women lying insensible on the floor was among them no unusual occurrence. In connection with the Shakers a description has already been given of the "jerks," another of the Kentucky Revival phenomena. The literature on the Kentucky Revival is rather meagre. It is interesting, however, to find among the accounts of that excitement the observations of a young graduate in medicine who discusses 2 the phenomena from the point of view of science and points out its pathological nature. The "whirling gift" of the Shakers, which was the process (spinning like a top, comes to the attention of the neurologist under the guise of dervish dancing, as

1 Healy, William, and Healy, M. T.: "Pathological Lying, Accusation and Swindling." Boston, 1915.
2 Robertson, Felix: "Essay on Chorea Sancti Viti; Inaugural Dissertation." Philadelphia, 1805. does also the state known among the Shakers as the "dumb devils" under the form of hysterical mutism. In the "barks" of the Kentucky Revival and the "mortification gifts" of the Shakers, which included the imitation of the cries of animals, we confront a possible atavistic as well as a pathological condition. The tendency of nervous disturbances to cause a deepening of the voice such as was in evidence in the case of the "barks" is well known. The primitive nature of the imitation of the cries of animals in connection with religious worship is also a fact which demands consideration.

All through the study of the tongues movement the fact of tactile anaesthesia of various degrees existing among those who were looked upon as the objects of various operations of the spirit of God or of Satan, has been constantly recurring. Particularly is this evident when we deal with the subject of witchcraft, where we find the physiological conditions of the tongues without the nomenclature. The unhappy part which tactile anaesthesia played in the annals of witchcraft, however, is only one of the many parts played in what becomes the tragedy of life when ignorance and superstition are the masters. The "laughing" of the Shakers is not far removed from the camp meeting state of "getting happy," and in either case we are not far removed from a mild hysteria. The hearing of voices, the seeing of visions, the feeling of the separation of the soul from the body, are all alike stigmata of degeneration. The atavistic nature of the tongues phenomena is another aspect of the case which merits attention. We have noticed the primitive nature of the love of words viewed merely as sounds, and we have seen that love of words associated with religious ideas. In the case of the tongues people we are probably facing the reappearance of an idea still current among primitive peoples that there is a religious value and power per se in a word or words. The, falling and crying, the grimaces and the dances, together with the stress upon sex either in a positive or a negative fashion, as well as the frequent imitation of the cries of animals, are all primitive elements which still linger among the tongues people. The difficulty of studying the tongues from the point of view of speech is greatly increased by the fact that very few of the cases of tongues with which we meet, are spontaneous. The elements of imitation and simulation enter so largely into the utterances of the tongues that it is exceedingly difficult to pass judgment directly upon the nature of the phenomena. We are obliged to recognise the fact, however, that the possibility of speaking short, broken sentences or expressing unmeaning sounds and words as the result of an inner inexplicable compulsion, which compulsion it is possible to identify with the Spirit of God must be taken into serious consideration. But in reckoning with such a possibility, we are obliged to note that such a condition coexists only with some disturbance in the mental life. The torrent of words, both in the tongues and in prophecy, as well as the majesty of tone ascribed to those who thus speak, are also fully consonant with a theory of mental abnormality and pathological physiology. A factor of a psychological nature which cannot be ignored as pointing towards a physiological condition which is fundamentally pathological, as the basis of the tongues movement is the obvious disturbance in the vita sexualis of the tongues people. The case appears in clearest outlines among the Shakers, although the fact that the most characteristic doctrine of Mormonism is related to the vita sexualis is evidence in point. A study of primitive Shakerism from the point of view of the sexual life brings to light the fact of the existence of such sexual perversions as may well be presumed to have their origin in physiological conditions of a pathological nature. Just how far the enforcement of celibacy, and just how far definitely pathological conditions are responsible for Shaker exercises cannot be determined. But this much is certain that underneath the great majority of the Shaker forms of worship, particularly the greater part of the gifts, there is a definitely perverse sexual tendency. That the gifts for dancing naked, for going into the water together naked, and certain mortification gifts can be classified under the head of exhibitionism is obvious. In John Farrington’s cry of "Love” "More Love," 1 in Father William’s "The smiting of the righteous is like precious ointment," 2 we are undoubtedly dealing with the presence of a masochistic tendency, while in the practice of flagellation, we meet with the opposite, sadism. In the Shakers, as well as in other people who have taught the ideal of celibacy and sought to repress the sexual instinct, we find invariably that we hear most about and we deal most frequently with the problems of sex. It is always in the foreground. In the early Shaker discourses, there are noticeable references to sex uncleanness, effeminacy, onanism, and to other terms having to deal with the sexual life. In Shaker worship sexual ideas are everywhere present. The "hugging" gift and the "warring" gift are not in this connection to be passed over. Nor are we to ignore the sexual connotation of dancin- and the possibility of the attaining of a diffused orgasm through this medium.

It is in the Shakers that the evidences of sexual 1 "Testimonies": XXII:10-11 (p. 155).
2 Brown: op. cit., p. 210. perversion are most clear. But the part which the sexual impulse has played in Mormonism, among the French Prophets, in witchcraft and, in particular, in connection with the devils of Loudun, is in no sense to be ignored.

Religion has always been a fertile field for the expression of egomania. In Christianity and its various aberrations and perversions the indefinite nature of the doctrine of the third person of the Trinity has afforded a by no means neglected opportunity for the claiming by individuals of particular spiritual excellence due to their special personal relation to the Holy Ghost. How much this is a well intentioned pious delusion, and how much this state of mind is akin to egomania involves a very nice distinction. But there is certainly every evidence of egomania in the statements attributed to Mother Ann.

Thus:

"To John Farrington, a young man who came to her and confessed his sins and to whom she told still other things about himself, she said, ’Can you now go to Lebanon and testify that you have found a woman that told you all things that you have ever done? And is not this the Christ?’ He answered, ’Yea, truly I can.’ ’

"Morrell Baker, senr., visited the Church at Watervliet, in 1784, and being under great impression of mind concerning Mother’s calling, he spoke to her and said, ’Thou art the Bride, the Lamb’s Wife !’ She answered, Thou hast rightly said: for so I am ! Christ is my husband. I see now many souls who have left the body, and have come to hear the gospel ! I now hear the hosts of heaven, singing praises to God !’ " 1

Reference has already been made to the astounding conceit of Joseph Smith, Jr. One fault of Edward Irving was his tendency to confuse his own ideas with 1 "Testimonies": XXIII: 1 7. the leadings of the Spirit of God. The claims and presumptions of the prophets and the gifted among the Irvingites, particularly in reference to their practical exclusion of Irving from the leadership and councils of church, may also well be called to mind. That we are dealing with pathological lying in many of the cases which have come under our observation is sufficiently obvious. It is not to be doubted that either ’M other Ann or Joseph Smith, Jr., believed, at least after time, in what they said about themselves and about their revelations. The general shiftlessness of the Smith family, for example, and their irregular financial condition, together with the incident of the Kirtland Bank, further evidences of those characteristics which, together with sexual irregularity, indicate rather clearly a ’pathological condition existing on the part of the founder of Mormonism. The psychological factors which may in like manner be looked upon as responsible for the appearance of the tongues are psychological factors which have greater weight in the determining of the conduct of persons who are abnormal or slightly abnormal than in determining the conduct of those who approach normality more nearly. If we assume as our starting point the involuntary ejaculation of broken fragments of speech by persons the hysteroid type which utterances are at once seized as modern recurrences of the apostolic phenomena, we have found the undoubted physiological beginnings of the gift. The tracing of its spread is a very simple matter.

Men are "eager for the supernatural." The ordinary way of morality as a school for spiritual development is often irksome. The bringing in of the Kingdom of God through patient toil is not an undertaking which commends itself to many minds. Cataclysmic religion is far more interesting. Voices, visions and miracles are a much more simple and attractive method of solving the problems of life than is to be found along the bare and sometimes unattractive path of duty. The lure of the presence of the supernatural is a will-o’-the-wisp that many minds follow gladly, never stopping to investigate claims or pretensions as to the reality of the supernatural. It is too much for some men to work. They must wait for God. In fact, they would rather wait than work. When men thus eager for the presence of the supernatural and anxious to see some new signs of the presence of the Spirit of God in life find a religious and pious man uttering incoherent sounds, it is obviously possible to interpret such sounds as "unknown tongues," and to welcome the phenomenon as the gift of tongues. The endowment of a man with this apostolic gift naturally marks him out as more highly favoured spiritually than his fellows. It is a mark of distinction. We have noticed how frequently the fact of the gift has been used in the effort to make proselytes by the tongues people, and how it has been held up as the proof -positive of the apostolic nature of the age and of the peculiar excellence spiritually of the sect concerned. Even religious people are not utterly unsusceptible to the promptings of the spirit of vanity. Indeed, it is altogether possible and reasonable to suggest that the doctrine, of sanctification as it is sometimes presented, the doctrine of the second blessing and the doctrine of the inner light, all have a dangerous relation to vanity and to a species of selfishness. The appearance of the tongues may be traced first to disease, second to an eager expectancy of the supernatural, and in the third place to vanity and the desire for spiritual distinction.

Imitation is still another factor in the tongues. While there do exist those who utter, under the influence of an expulsive idea, which cannot be resisted, disconnected sounds and words, the number of such persons is rare. Beginning with the French Prophets, it is very easy to trace the factor of imitation in the development of the tongues movement. In fact, tracing the love of words and sounds and the speaking in unknown or unusual languages under the influence of magic or witchcraft, and taking into consideration the cultural standing of the French Prophets, we can readily understand how the French Prophets came first to know of the tongues. Or we can very readily suppose that under the conditions of distress and persecution under which the Camisards lived, spontaneous manifestations of the tongues might have occurred. From the French Prophets to the Shakers the line of descent indicates clearly the fact or at least the possibility of imitation. The origin of the tongues among the Mormons can very readily be traced to the Shakers. The home of Joseph Smith, Jr., and the country of the Shakers were in the same neighbourhood. The origin of the gift among the Irvingites may be attributed to the influence of the French Prophets. Mary Campbell first spoke in the tongues under the influence of the suggestions involved in Scott’s preaching. The Macdonalds followed the leading of Mary Campbell. The American tongues people of to-day are apparently Irvingite in their origin. The honour and the respect with which the gifted have been treated among the various tongues people has made it at least worth while to attempt the tongues, and, in itself, constitutes a suggestion from which the gift may develop. The further fact that the gift of tongues is treated as an attainment which is possible only for the inner circle, and that there is a possibility that by agonising and praying for that gift it may be attained, constitutes a very forceful psychological factor which may help to explain the gift.

Contagion is another psychological element which has something to do with the appearing of the gift. The gift to-day is generally manifested in a crowd and in a scene of confusion and tumult, which reflects no credit upon the Kingdom of God. The excitement of revivals, and the general exuberance and disorders of camp meetings, and particularly the "after meetings," are to-day fertile soil from which we may expect the gift to spring.

We are not to forget the aversion to culture which sometimes exists on the part of the tongues people. The folly of all the learning of the "world’s people" has ever been a favourite topic for the thought and discussion of the tongues people. The antagonism of the Shakers in their early days to learning is notorious. While it is undoubtedly true that this antagonism to culture on the part of the ignorantly religious and the religious ignorant is the expression of a "suppressed desire” it is a fact with which, whatever its origin, we may reckon. For a man or a woman destitute of all "book-learning" to be able to speak, under what is conceived to be the influence of the Holy Spirit, in languages which the learned of this world cannot understand, much less speak, is an unmistakable triumph not only for the cause of religion but for the individual thus gifted. As we have studied the history of the tongues people we have found increasing difficulty in assigning the tongues to any known language or languages. We have seen that Latin and Greek and Hebrew have been frequently stated to be the tongues in which the speaking took place. When, however, the matter has been further investigated, we found that the Latin was uniquely deficient in grammatical construction, or that there are two kinds of Hebrew, the one of which the person identifying the language spoken as Hebrew is unable to translate. He is familiar with the other kind of Hebrew. "Indian" tongues have frequently been stated to have been the languages in question, or we have been told that the gift was in the language of the Pellew Islands or of some savage tribe in the southern Pacific Ocean. There are doubtless cases in which shreds of Latin, like the "amamimini" of Mr. Taplin, were part of the tongues as well as shreds of Hebrew or Greek, or French, or Indian tongues. But in no case is there substantial evidence of any sort that the persons who claimed to speak by inspiration in other languages, actually used other languages. The testimony is universally that of the person who claimed to have spoken in the "other tongues" or of interested witnesses. Whenever men of any linguistic knowledge have investigated the phenomena, they have united in testifying that the language spoken was indeed unknown. This conclusion of learned doctors that the language investigated was unknown has been seized triumphantly by the tongues people as a proof of the supernatural origin of the gift. Here is something, they tell us, in the presence of which the learned are helpless. And yet God has, through the gift of the interpretation of tongues, raised up in their own ranks those able to translate the language unknown and incomprehensible to scholars. With an argument of this sort it is difficult to deal. The only possible refutation of any gratuitous assumption in the field of religion is the final refutation the ethical. The fruits of the tongues movement are ignorance, selfishness, conceit, dishonesty, fornication, adultery, unnatural vices, and blasphemy. If these be the works of the Spirit, then we know not what or who the Spirit is, or what or who God is.

We might, however, call to mind what is believed to be said in the unknown tongues, as revealed through the gift of the interpretation of tongues. It is safe to say that the message of the tongues, is always eschatological. It deals with the duty of repentance, and with the fact of impending judgment and punishment, particularly for the enemies of the faith. It seems to be a warning of evil to come as far as the messages given in the tongues have been translated and the translation thereof recorded in English. The note of praise seems to have been sounded in the Shaker hymns in the tongues, although it is just as possible that they may have been songs celebrating the general worthiness and excellence of the Shakers. Brigham Young’s prayer in the "pure Adamic language," as well as Mother Ann’s prayers in the tongues, seem never to have been translated. It is difficult to judge of their thought-content if they had any.

It is possible, then, to sum up the tongues as far as definite meaning is concerned by saying that they are a jargon language composed of sounds an exact classification of which it is impossible to make. The sounds are sometimes suggestive of echolalia. They are sometimes the products of memory- conscious or subconscious, as are the shreds of Latin, or Greek, or other known foreign languages which appear among the tongues. They are sometimes suggestive of the fact that the gifted is trying to think of another sonorous word to use and is compelled to fall back on shouting out words like "Ezekiel, Obadiah."

Whatever may be the meaning of the sounds actually uttered, there is certainly some state of mind back of the utterance. It may be the simple desire to make an impression, to give a demonstration of one’s spiritual powers and of one’s intimacy with the divine. If this is the mental condition, then we are dealing with fraud pure and simple; fraud that is actually fraud, whether it be a pious fraud or a commercial fraud.

There are easels of the tongues which, however, must not be classified under the head of fraud. Where we deal with those persons who are impelled by an inner force over which they have no control, to involuntary utterances of broken sounds, we deal with a problem psychologically different certainly from that of the state of mind of one who is guilty of conscious fraud. The mental state here is doubtless analogous to what St. Paul was thinking about when he spoke of "whether in the body or out of the body." It seems to involve in it the elements of exaltation and of highly pleasurable excitement. States of mind characterised by exaltation and highly pleasurable excitement, accompanied by or followed by the ejaculation of irregular vocal sounds, or disconnected words, can be found associated with alcoholic intoxication, forms of epileptic seizure, and sometimes with coitus. We are compelled, then, to recognise that in the state of mind incident to spontaneous expressions of the tongues, we are dealing with a state of mind which is associated with a pathological condition as in alcoholic intoxication or in epilepsy, or we are dealing with a state of mind related to the sexual instinct. In the latter case, the effort to repress the sexual nature and entirely to eliminate it is, for the tongues people, a physiological and psychological absurdity.

There is only one reason why we may look upon the tongues as a supernatural manifestation, and that reason is to be found in our desire to do so. If we wish to identify disease with the miraculous, there is no power to prevent our doing so. It has been done before. But there is every evidence pointing to the fact that the tongues in their origin are either a fraud or pathological, or both.