Review of Xenoglossy: a review and report of a case, by Ian Stevenson

Abstract

Xenoglossy refers to the phenomenon where a person speaks a language he has not learned. It is not the same as glossolalia, which, as one sees in Samarin 1972, refers to pseudo-language-though this would be denied by most glossolalists, who believe that they speak real languages, and that therefore, when they 'speak in tongues', they are really xenoglossists. It is understandable that among these Pentecostals there are many stories of cases where a speaker's 'tongue' was supposed to have been identified by someone in the audience who knew that language, and who translated or at least provided the sense of the speech that was incomprehensible to everyone else, the speaker included (see Harris 1973-a popular religious booklet). Stevenson's book, however, is not interested in these cases, and refers to them only by citing two books on glossolalia (one published in 1927 and the other in 1964), although the literature is extensive.