Neurophenomenology

Speaking in Tongues with Josh Brahinsky

New Thinking AllowedOct 19, 2026

Psychological anthropologist Josh Brahinsky explains what happens in the brain when Pentecostal Christians speak in tongues, drawing on EEG and MRI studies of nearly 100 practitioners. His research found that moments of surrender to God, which participants call "dropping in," reduce activity in the brain's motor planning and executive control regions and increase creative thinking. He argues this loosening of the mind is powerful enough to inspire social activism on both the left and the right, from the 1906 Azusa Street Revival to modern conservative movements.