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Xenoglossy
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Xenoglossy (from Greek ?e?????ss?a - xenoglossia, from ????? - xenos, "foreign" + ???ssa - glossa, "tongue, language") is the putative paranormal phenomenon in which a person is able to speak a language that he or she could not have acquired by natural means. For example, a person who speaks German fluently and like a native, but has never studied German, been to a German-speaking country, or associated with German-speakers, would be said to exhibit xenoglossy. The existence of xenoglossy is not generally accepted by linguists and psychologists (Samarin 1976, Thomason 1984, 1987, 1996). However, psychiatrist Professor Ian Stevenson has documented several cases which he considers authentic (Stevenson, 2001).
Xenoglossy and reincarnationXenoglossy has been used as evidence of the reality of reincarnation, on the assumption that retention of knowledge of the language from a previous life is the only way to account for it. Scientific research into xenoglossy is quite rare and Professor Ian Stevenson, a psychiatrist, had just a handful of suggestive cases. In a footnote in Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Question of Reincarnation, Professor Stevenson lists the cases that he considered authentic and important:
- Swarnlatta Mishra: A girl in India who lived entirely among Hindi-speaking people but was able to sing songs in Bengali, as identified by Professor P. Pal of Itachuna College in West Bengal, who studied the case after Professor Stevenson and transcribed some of the songs.
- Uttara Huddar: Uttara was a woman in India who normally spoke Marathi but, after participating in a meditation during a hospitalization, began speaking in Bengali, much to the bewilderment of her parents.
- Two hypnotic regression cases: Professor Stevenson is quite skeptical of most hypnotic regression work but he did have two cases that included responsive xenoglossy; that is, hypnotic subjects who could converse with people speaking the foreign language, instead of merely being able to recite foreign words. One is that of Jensen, an American woman who, while under hypnosis conducted by her physician husband, described being a Swedish peasant farmer and was able to converse in Swedish. The other is Gretchen, an American woman who was hypnotized by her Methodist minister husband and began spontaneously speaking in German. She described the life of a teenaged girl in Germany, and Professor Stevenson, who is able to speak German, was able to converse with her.
CriticismLinguist Sarah Thomason concluded from her analysis of the cases described by Stevenson that in all but one case the language knowledge displayed was small and could easily have been learned by casual exposure. Linguist William Samarin drew the same conclusion regarding the Swedish case reported by Stevenson (1974). In the one case in which Thomason considered the subject's language knowledge to be non-trivial, that of Uttara Huddara, a Marathi woman in Mumbai (Bombay) who could speak Bengali, Thomason argues that the language could easily have been acquired by natural means: Bengali and Marathi are closely related languages, the woman had a life-long interest in Bengali language and culture and had many Bengali acquaintances, and people in Bombay are exposed to Bengali in such contexts as the cinema since many films are made in Bengali. Thomason (1996) critiques both Stevenson's cases and cases reported to her by hypnotist Ralph Grossi.
Robert Almeder has responded to some of what Thomason has said, and argues:
"Thomason's alternative explanation here seems more like a hand-waving dismissal than an attempt to show how we can replicate such a phenomena without having to adopt Stevenson's thesis that in fact these people have spoken in a foreign language they did not learn in this life."
Professor Stevenson had tapes of Uttara Huddara evaluated by a linguist and thoroughly investigated the possibility that the woman could have learned Bengali through normal means, and he concluded that reincarnation was the best interpretation of the case.
Press reportsProper scientific investigation of reports of xenoglossy is rare. More typical are press reports like that of
Czech speedway rider Matej Kus from Pilsen, who, in September of 2007 at the age of 18 reportedly
awoke after a crash and was able to converse in perfect English. His ability did not last long and he was unable to remember anything from this episode. The press reports of his fluency in English are based entirely on the reports of his Czech team-mates. There is no record of his allegedly fluent speech or report by a native English speaker.
See also
Bibliography- Samarin, William J. Review of Ian Stevenson Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of a Case. Language 52.1.270-274. (1976)
- Stevenson, Ian. Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. (1966). (Second revised and enlarged edition 1974), University of Virginia Press, ISBN 0813908728
- Stevenson, Ian. Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of a Case. Charlotte: University Press of Virginia. (1974).
- Stevenson, Ian. Unlearned Language: New Studies in Xenoglossy. (1984). University of Virginia Press, ISBN 0813909945
- Stevenson, Ian. Children Who Remember Previous Lives: A Quest of Reincarnation. (2001). McFarland & Company, ISBN 0-7864-0913-4
- Thomason, Sarah G. "Do you remember your previous life's language in your present incarnation?" American Speech, 59:340–50, 1984.
- Thomason, Sarah G. "Past tongues remembered?" The Skeptical Inquirer, 11:367–75, Summer 1987.
- Thomason, Sarah G. "Xenoglossy" in Gordon Stein (ed.) The Encyclopedia of the Paranormal. Buffalo: Prometheus Books. (1996)
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