ABSTRACT
Women, who predominated in all forms of nervous instability, spoke in tongues more than men. Some religious experiences are undoubtedly pathological in origin and character, and alienists may find tongues in general abnormal states more frequently than in religious ecstasy. If the common object is a specified phenomenon like tongues, regarded as an essential sign that the believer has achieved his goal and, unlike inner states of spiritual attainment, openly manifest to the senses of his companions, and then sooner or later he will speak in tongues. The most that psychology can do for the believer in tongues is to give the support of Jung’s theories to the possibility that individuals may have direct contact with spiritual reality and that tongues may be a conceivable phenomenon Crowd psychology is always suspect, though seemingly on the increase to judge from the repetitive and mindless shouting of slogans by demonstrators seen almost daily on the television news.
