Xenoglossy: Evidence of Past Lives?

Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?—Acts 2:5-8

How should we understand xenoglossy, the capacity to speak a never-before-heard foreign language?  Religion, science, and the skeptics of the world have tried to explain this phenomenon in various ways, including genetic memory, telepathy, or cryptonesia (recalling a foreign language learnt unconsciously or during childhood). However, xenoglossy has seen many manifestations throughout history, and none of these responses can adequately explain every case.  

According to some historians, the first documented case of xenoglossy is seen with the 12 apostles during the Pentecost. But for those who do not consider the Bible a reliable historical source, there is a wealth of examples in other contexts of the ancient and medieval world, as well as our modern era.

Unknown or Forgotten Languages?

 
Upon being hypnotized, a woman from Pennsylvania was somehow able to communicate in Swedish. Yet her sudden grasp of the language did not come from study. When under a deep state of trance, she spoke using the lower register of her voice, claiming to be Jensen Jacoby, an inhabitant of Sweden, born in the 17th century.

This case was studied in depth by the late Dr. Ian Stevenson former head of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia and author of “Unlearned language: new studies in Xenoglossy.”  According to Dr. Stevenson, with no prior training or exposure to the language, this woman could only have known Swedish if she remembered it from a previous existence.  Dr. Stevenson’s theory is supported by the subject’s ability to name daily artifacts of the place and time in which Jacoby was said to have lived.

This is not by far the only case of xenoglossy attributed to previous incarnations. In 1953, Professor P. Pal from the University of Itachuna in East Bengal discovered Swarnlata Mishra, a 4-year-old Hindu girl who was somehow capable of dancing and singing in Bengali, without having had any previous contact with that culture. The young girl stated that she had once been a Bengali woman who was taught how to dance by a close friend.

The Origin of Xenoglossy

 
While some attribute cases of xenoglossy to cryptonesia (as in the case of the young Hindu girl possibility having some forgotten contact with nearby Bengalese culture), there are a number of cases for which such an explanation is inadequate.

One of the most surprising events of these cases took place in 1977. Ohio state penitentiary convict Billy Mulligan was found to have two additional personalities: one identified as Abdul, who spoke perfect Arabic; and the other, called Rugen, who communicated in perfect Serbo-Croatian. According to prison doctors, Mulligan had never left the United States, where he was born and grew up to adulthood.

Likewise, biologist Lyall Watson describes the case of 10-year-old Indio Igarot, a Filipino boy who, when in trance, communicated in the Zulu tongue, which he had never heard.

A more recent case was triggered by a car accident. Prior to an event in 2007, Czech speedway racer Matěj Kus could barely fumble along in broken English. Yet after being knocked unconscious in the accident, paramedics and others at the crash site were amazed that Kus could suddenly speak clear and perfect English with a British accent. However, the ability didn’t last long. Kus retained no memory of his temporary English fluency and is now enduring learning English through conventional study.

Some scientists have proposed that such cases might stem from a genetic legacy, while others have suggested that these individuals could be telepathically connecting to this language through foreign speakers. However, these theories do not benefit from the extensive research, evidence, and study given to Dr. Stevenson’s theory.

In support of this idea, Australian psychologist Peter Ramster, author of “The Search for Lives Past,” found that he could maintain fluid conversations in ancient French with his student Cynthia Henderson, but only when she was under hypnosis. When she was out of the trance state, she possessed only a rudimentary understanding of the language.

In the search for an all-inclusive explanation for xenoglossy, several researchers have come to agree with Dr. Stevenson’s understanding that points toward previous lives. According to this theory, following a trauma, or in a hypnotic state, the personality from a previous incarnation comes through and the person exhibits knowledge that he or she could not possibly have known in this life. Others, like researcher Sarah Thompson, argue that Dr. Stevenson’s evidence is simply too thin to make such a claim.

In the beginning, Dr. Stevenson was also highly skeptical with regard to cases of regressive hypnosis; yet as time passed, he became one of the most prolific authors on the subject. Later, as his work progressed, Dr. Stevenson turned his attention to young children for subjects. He found that they were more easily able to recall information from previous incarnations and did not need hypnotization or a traumatic event to reveal their distant past.

Dr. Stevenson would record the children’s descriptions of their past lives and compare them with records of the deceased individuals they had claimed to be. He would even compare details of the physical abnormalities of the deceased to the child’s description, such as the location of scars and birthmarks. This information, combined with the xenoglossy cases, provided Dr. Stevenson with what he believed to be proof of past lives.

Gods, Demons, and Dead Languages

But even past lives can’t account for all the cases of xenoglossy. In several examples, an individual can speak a language which is attributed by some to be the manipulation of beings from other planes of existence for various purposes. It is akin to what some might call possession or, in the case of a benevolent entity, contact with a higher form of existence.

The result can be even more curious when subjects are found to speak and write the unimaginable—such as the language of Atlantis, or even the Martian language, as in the case recorded by investigator T. Flournoy in 1899, when a subject named “Helen” was said to command, aside from Hindi and French, the language of the red planet.

In addition to cases involving languages from lost continents or nearby planets—which remain difficult to authenticate—xenoglossy also manifests as lost languages, dead languages, or rare dialects.

One such case involves an English child named Rosemary, who, when in a state of trance, became Telika-Ventiu. In 1931, this individual, said to be from A.D.1400, spoke and wrote in an ancient Egyptian dialect that only a few specialists in the world could even recognize or comprehend.

While the xenoglossy phenomenon is intriguing, perhaps even more fascinating is the prospect of imagining where such an ability could originate. If the theories brought by Dr. Stevenson and other researchers brave enough to explore the enigma are correct, then they offer ideas more mysterious than the phenomenon itself.

Could xenoglossy be the result of past lives, or beings from other dimensions? And if so, why? Do these beings have vital information to share with us from the other side, or does the phenomenon merely exist to key us into a greater understanding of our world?

*republished under agreement from The Epoch Times