A Neuroscientific Look at Speaking in Tongues: Speaking in Tongues Medical Study proves Holy Spirit praying

The passionate, sometimes rhythmic, language-like patter that pours forth from religious people who “speak in tongues” reflects a state of mental possession, many of them say. Now they have some neuroscience to back them up.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania took brain images of five women while they spoke in tongues and found that their frontal lobes — the thinking, willful part of the brain through which people control what they do — were relatively quiet, as were the language centers. The regions involved in maintaining self-consciousness were active. The women were not in blind trances, and it was unclear which region was driving the behavior.

The images, appearing in the current issue of the journal Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, pinpoint the most active areas of the brain. The images are the first of their kind taken during this spoken religious practice, which has roots in the Old and New Testaments and in Pentecostal churches established in the early 1900s. The women in the study were healthy, active churchgoers.

“The amazing thing was how the images supported people’s interpretation of what was happening,” said Dr. Andrew B. Newberg, leader of the study team, which included Donna Morgan, Nancy Wintering and Mark Waldman. “The way they describe it, and what they believe, is that God is talking through them,” he said.

Dr. Newberg is also a co-author of “Why We Believe What We Believe.”

In the study, the researchers used imaging techniques to track changes in blood flow in each woman’s brain in two conditions, once as she sang a gospel song and again while speaking in tongues. By comparing the patterns created by these two emotional, devotional activities, the researchers could pinpoint blood-flow peaks and valleys unique to speaking in tongues.

Ms. Morgan, a co-author of the study, was also a research subject. She is a born-again Christian who says she considers the ability to speak in tongues a gift. “You’re aware of your surroundings,” she said. “You’re not really out of control. But you have no control over what’s happening. You’re just flowing. You’re in a realm of peace and comfort, and it’s a fantastic feeling.”

Contrary to what may be a common perception, studies suggest that people who speak in tongues rarely suffer from mental problems. A recent study of nearly 1,000 evangelical Christians in England found that those who engaged in the practice were more emotionally stable than those who did not. Researchers have identified at least two forms of the practice, one ecstatic and frenzied, the other subdued and nearly silent.

The new findings contrasted sharply with images taken of other spiritually inspired mental states like meditation, which is often a highly focused mental exercise, activating the frontal lobes.

The scans also showed a dip in the activity of a region called the left caudate. “The findings from the frontal lobes are very clear, and make sense, but the caudate is usually active when you have positive affect, pleasure, positive emotions,” said Dr. James A. Coan, a psychologist at the University of Virginia. “So it’s not so clear what that finding says” about speaking in tongues.

The caudate area is also involved in motor and emotional control, Dr. Newberg said, so it may be that practitioners, while mindful of their circumstances, nonetheless cede some control over their bodies and emotions.

Watch the Video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZbQBajYnEc

How you can stay healthy in 2013, by medical expert

If you want to stay alive and healthy in 2013, then listen to this. A health expert has expressed anger and disappointment that most Nigerians are too careless with their health. He goes on to say that the ban on commercial motorbikes, popularly called okada by various state governments is good for all who don’t exercise their bodies and have not found the need to do so.

“Most Nigerians are too careless with their health,” Professor Bashir Akande says with a mixture of disappointment and authority ringing out from his voice. “They simply take things for granted. They think that once they feel all right, everything is well.

But what they often fail to understand is that there could be hidden dangers lurking in their bodies, which they know not. Some could be hypertensive without knowing it; some could be diabetic without knowing it; some could have cardio vascular (heart) problems without knowing it. Only regular medical checks can reveal if anyone has any of these hidden health challenges or some other problems.”

Professor Akande, a surgeon who retired from the College of Medicine, University of Lagos and Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) makes the statement as he reflects on common health challenges confronting many Nigerians.

He tells Daily Sun that many of the health problems confronting most Nigerians can be avoided in the New Year if only people can mind what they eat, exercise regularly and attend regular health checks. “It is unfortunate that generally most Nigerians take their health for granted.

They hardly do things to take care of themselves until some health challenges that can easily be arrested in the early stages cause greater harm. From my experience over the years, most people in this country don’t go for medical check-ups. They fail to understand that once one is above the age of 30 years, he or she needs to see the doctor for check-up at least once a year.

“We regularly find out that some Nigerians may be diabetic and won’t know. They go on drinking and drinking, eating and eating until they go into diabetic coma. But if such people were attending regular medical check-ups, they would have been told what to avoid to remain alive and healthy. “However, it is gratifying to note that nowadays, more and more women are coming forward for regular checks on their breasts because of the escalating menace of breast cancer.

Some of them are also going to gynaecologists for checks on their cervices for cancer. If most Nigerians go early for such checks, ailments which can be treated early enough are detected; you can be assured that people who would have died as a result of carelessness would go on to live for a very long time, provided they follow the instructions of their doctors. Many people do not bother about their health until they have been diagnosed of hypertension. There is no cure for hypertension. It can rather be controlled.

There are some rare cases of hypertension that need operation to control once and for all. Indeed, majority of Nigerians suffer from what we call essential hypertension, which has no outright cure but can be controlled. Diabetes too can be controlled provided that the patient does not go eating excessively or doing certain things in excess.” Professor Akande, a one-time Director of Clinical Services and Training at LUTH, is equally worried that very many Nigerians lead sedentary life, which he insists is a major cause of most health challenges prevalent in the country. “If I may ask you, how many Nigerians indulge in regular exercises as a way of keeping fit and staying healthy? The much we know of most people is that they wake up in the morning, jump into their cars and off they go.

They don’t exercise their bodies; they don’t exercise their legs. They fail to realise that physical exercise is very important. Ideally, if we have good parks and people can take a walk, then they can go on to improve on their health. But unfortunately, ours is an okada society. And there are very many okadas all over the place, which can knock down anyone who dares to take a walk in the streets. Most of our roads are not even good enough for walking, as many of them have no provision for pedestrians.

“In Lagos in particular and generally in this country, traffic jam is a common feature. This is a big problem and a major health hazard. You see traffic jams hold down people at a place for a very long time. Sometimes you see people who are compelled to sit at the same spot in cars and buses for hours on end. They get up only to develop blood clot in their veins. Some of them sometimes develop what is called pulmonary embolism.

This blood clot may dislodge and then spill into the heart and then to the lungs, thus making it difficult for the sufferer to breathe. And if one cannot breathe, what then happens? Death!” Professor Akande maintains it is because of the problems he has been speaking about that he insists that Nigerians need to step up efforts to take care of their health.

“This is part of the reason medical experts insist that preventive measures are very, very important for people to live relatively free of most health challenges.

The media need to publish this; the enlightened ones need to educate all and sundry that once one attains age 35 years and above, he or she needs to regularly monitors his or her blood pressure and blood sugar. “People need to exercise a lot.

They should not just be jumping into and out of their cars without exercising their bodies. This is not wholesome. In my growing-up days in Lagos, people used to walk a lot. We used to walk from Ebute Meta to Lagos Island crossing the Cater Bridge.

Now if people want to go to a point 10meters away, they go by car or motorbike. It is killing us. “In those days we used to hear about cancer as a disease prevalent among the whites. But now it is becoming common among the blacks – prostrate and colon cancer in particular. These are some of the problems Nigerians need to proactively prevent,” he asserts.

A Rare Miracle: Buried Baby Dug Out Alive in Lagos

There are some stories you hear that just make you sick to the pit of your stomach and at the same time, marvel at the wonders of God’s miracles. This story is one of them.

It would be hard, almost impossible, to understand what must have been running through the mind of the person who buried this innocent child or the circumstances that could have led him or her to take such a decision. But we are thankful that God preserved the life of this little child who was left to die and and gave her another chance at life.

Details of where the child was buried are still sketchy, but the pictures of the child buried in the ground and how she looked shortly after she was dug up with mud all over her body has gone viral online, leaving many people in shock. She was just a new born with the her placenta still attached to her navel

Satanic Mistress Strangles Lover's Four Kids - What a Gory Tale

What sounds like a movie tale, A woman in Obuno Umuochefu, Igbo-Ukwu in Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra state has snuffed life out of four children of her boyfriend by strangling them. Not done with her bestial mission, the suspect sat back at the scene of the crime until her victims’ parents returned, and attacked their mother.

For Mr and Mrs Nwanneka Ogechukwu Okonkwo, both natives of Ekwulumili in Nnewi South Local Government Area but resident in Igbo-Ukwu, January 15, 2013, came like any other day. But the young couple who are each 28 years old, never knew that it was the day their four children, Chukwuebuka, (13), Chukwumelum (6) Obumneme (3) and 15-month-old Chinenyenwa would breathe their last.

The young couple had no premonition of the tragedy that shocked everybody in the community. Their three sons and a daughter were allegedly killed by a lady simply identified as Blessing, from Abakiliki in Ebonyi State. Narrating the tragic incident, the mother of the dead children who spoke with Sunday Sun at Ekwulumili Health Centre where she was recuperating from the shock, said that she was also attacked by the suspect. Mrs Okonkwo said that the eldest of her children, Chukwuebuka, was the first casualty.

According to her, the suspect allegedly hit him on his forehead with a hard object and dumped the lifeless body inside an underground tank in the compound before strangling his siblings one after the other. “I was to go for a burial ceremony with my husband at Ukpor on that fateful day and the children went to school. We initially left with the youngest one, Chinenyenwa but the vehicle we boarded was jam-packed with passengers and the baby started crying. Consequently, my husband said we should disembark and use our motorcycle but people around said the road was too dusty to ride with a baby on a bike.

I decided to go home and wait for our other children who went to school so that they would take care of the baby and enable my husband and I to make the trip with our motorcycle. “But long after school hours, the children didn’t come home. We went to the school and other pupils told us that our children had gone home. I looked for them along the roads they usually take to the house but I did not see them.

Thereafter, I urged my husband to go on his own and look for them, but he returned soon after, saying he had seen them coming home. Before my husband and I left for the burial, I gave them food and told them to go and stay with an old woman in the neighbourhood because we are the only occupants of that building, and I don’t like them staying alone in the compound. “We had stayed barely one hour at the burial ceremony when my husband said we should go home.

But before we left, my husband’s phone rang and I heard him say, ‘I’m in a burial’. So, as we got close to our home, his phone rang again and he told the caller that we were not back yet. I didn’t ask him who the caller was as we rode straight to the house.

“When we got to the elderly neighbour’s house, we were told that she had gone for prayers and that my children were not seen there. We got to the house and I opened the gate from behind believing that the children were inside the house. As we parked our motorcycle inside the compound, my husband pointed to the underground tank that was open. I became apprehensive because we don’t keep it open. But I said maybe the eldest might have drawn water from the well and had forgotten to close it.

I called Ebuka but there was no response. I ran into the sitting room and saw the three younger ones lying on the floor as if they were asleep. I ran out again believing that those three were sleeping. I continued to call Ebuka and looked into the tank and I didn’t see anything. “Later, I decided to wake up Ebuka’s immediate younger brother to ascertain the whereabouts of his brother. I called him but he didn’t wake up; I tried to rouse him but he was motionless and so were the other two. I cried to my husband that the children were dead and I concluded that since the three were dead, Ebuka might be inside the well.

There were marks of human nails on their necks that showed that they were strangled. One of them had faeces in his anus. “It was when my husband started crying and moved towards our bedroom, that the lady (suspect) emerged from the bedroom and asked him why he was shouting. Then, I advanced towards her and demanded from her, where she kept Ebuka’s body because I had seen the others she killed. I held her and she gripped me. When I freed myself from her grip, I rushed to lock one of the two gates and raised the alarm until neighbours came.

“Later, somebody rushed out and called the youths of the community before the local vigilante and policemen arrived. She was arrested along with my husband.” Sources told Sunday Sun that the timely arrival of the police and the local vigilante saved the suspect from being lynched. It was also gathered that Mr Okonkwo, a furniture maker, had been dating the suspect, a relationship his wife confirmed, and had been battling to stop.

When contacted, the couple’s landlord, Mr Sunday, who lives outside the community, described the alleged killing of the innocent children as unfortunate and declined further comment. The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Anambra State, Mr Emeka Chukwuemeka, confirmed the incident and said the matter was being handled by the State Criminal Investigation Department in Awka, the state capital.