Xenoglossia is the suddenly manifested ability of a person to speak a language that he did not know before and that he, in principle, could not learn. What is it: genetic memory? A certificate of transmigration of souls? Or something else?
From the darkness of the ages
The very first written testimony we find in the New Testament, when 12 apostles unexpectedly began to speak in languages that they did not speak before. Bible readers were not at all surprised: God is subject to everything. The sudden mastery of foreign languages by Christ's disciples was considered evidence of their chosenness by God.
The Kiev chronicle of the 12th century mentions the monk of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, who suddenly spoke several Basurman languages at once: Latin, Hebrew, Greek and Syriac. Chernetz did not differ in his diligence in studying the Owl of God, his behavior was not exemplary, in short, he did not pull the chosen one. Therefore, the monks considered that this was not a gift from God, but from the Devil and began to drive out the devil from the poor fellow.
In 1634. at the London monastery of St. Ursula's several novices spoke in Greek, Latin, and Spanish. To get rid of this misfortune, they were ordered to pray earnestly and fast.
In the 19th century, an Italian peasant suddenly spoke in foreign languages. The priests who arrived found out that these were Latin, Greek, Turkish languages and decided to save the poor man - to carry out the rite of exorcism. The procedure was "successful": the devil left the peasant's body, at the same time taking his soul with him (the peasant died).
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Century XX
In the XX century, such cases were no longer dealt with by priests, but by scientists, so the subjects remained alive. The phenomenon was called xenoglossia, each case was recorded, investigated, and every year there were more and more of them. Certain patterns began to emerge.
Usually, the ability manifested itself in a person who has experienced mental or brain trauma. In 1978, a resident of the Lipetsk region, N. Lipatov, was hit by lightning, after which he spoke in German, English and French. In 1979, a Tula pensioner got run over by a car and mastered German, from which he previously knew only "Hyundai Hoh" and "Hitler Kaput". In 1998, at the Moscow Research Institute of Psychiatry, a woman was observed who began to speak Hebrew after a stroke.
Scientists suggested that the victims established a telepathic connection with foreigners and somehow absorbed part of their consciousness, including language proficiency.
Linguists' eyes lit up: it turns out that instead of poring over foreign language textbooks, it is enough to turn on a certain toggle switch in the brain! They remembered the American clairvoyant Edgar Cayce. He received letters from all over the world, but he never used the services of translators. The medium went into a trance and read a letter written in any language.
We started looking for this "magic switch". The idea to shock the subjects or throw them under cars was rejected, they decided to resort to hypnosis. And here the scientists were in for a surprise: many immersed in hypnosis spoke "dead" languages, or even recalled their past lives!
I remember…
13-year-old Englishwoman Yvette Clarke spoke in ancient Egyptian and introduced herself as a temple dancer. The scientist-Egyptologist who spoke with her not only could not catch her on inaccuracies, but he himself learned a lot of new things about Ancient Egypt.
In 1955, a hypnotized American woman described herself as Jensen Jacobi, a Swede who had died in the 17th century, and began to speak Swedish with archaisms of 300 years ago.
In 1959, 44-year-old Canadian John Dougherty talked about his life in ancient times in the Middle East and drew some scribbles, which turned out to be Arabic script that had not been used since the 7th century AD.
So what is it?
There are currently two competing theories. According to the first, our genetic memory is waking up. So, immersed in hypnosis, Pushkin could well speak some African dialect.
Proponents of reincarnation argue that our ancestors have nothing to do with it - a person recalls his past lives.
In principle, both theories say the same thing: xenoglossia is a bridge to our past. However, there are cases that do not fit into any of these theories. One of these was described by the Swiss psychologist Flournoy.
In 1899, he observed a woman who, in a state of hypnosis, spoke in addition to French and Hindi in a language that could not be identified. The language had structure, spelling, its own grammatical features, but at the same time it had nothing to do with any of the existing or dead languages. Its carrier, Helena, claimed to be spoken by the inhabitants of Mars. Was Helena a descendant of the Martians? Or did she live on the red planet in a past life? Or is there a third option?
Author Klim Podkova