This phenomenon is frequently present in incidents of past-life recall and states of altered consciousness, such as trance, delirium, and mediumship. Occasionally, dreams may include unknown and unlearned foreign languages.
The jury is still unsure whether this is a real phenomenon or a result of forgotten phrases emerging from the subconscious. Many instances are gibberish. Some researchers have claimed that the phenomenon results from the telepathy of people such as an h, hypnotist and a subject. If this is true, then it is astonishing that the telepathic ‘receiver’ can read the words in the sender’s mind and put the individual words into sentences. This would be a truly formidable task.
I have encountered limited Xenoglossy during my work as a medium. During mediumistic consultations, when I worked with a foreign sitter, I occasionally spoke to them in their own language. This has included short sentences in Urdu, Croatian, and Chinese—all languages that I have zero knowledge of but that the recipient understood. If spirits can transmit a foreign language during mediumship, could it not also happen in dreams or under hypnosis?
Sceptics have pointed out that many instances of Xenoglossy are memories of words and phrases that have been learned in the past but forgotten. However, there are rare instances when people can converse spontaneously in an unlearned language. One of the most famous cases was documented in 1961 by Dr Ian Stevenson and Professor Sri H. N. Banerjee when they researched the alleged past-life recall of Swarnlata Mishra - a Hindu girl born in 1948. She claimed that she remembered her previous incarnation as a Bengali woman. During this past life, she had been taught Bengali songs and dances by a friend. In her present life at the age of three years old the young girl sang Bengali songs and performed Bengali dances without ever having been exposed to the Bengali language or culture.
Dreams of strange words
If you dream of words being spoken in a dream, writing these down immediately upon waking is advisable, as auditory information is quickly forgotten. Foreign languages spoken in a dream can symbolise things you do not understand or are unknown to you. Dreaming of foreign countries or foreigners may represent a part of the psyche unfamiliar to you. It may show that you are neglecting important feelings or talents. Foreign lands can symbolise the fact that you are experiencing something unusual in your waking life. The anxieties associated with a new relationship, job, or strange experience may trigger these dreams.
In most instances, dreaming of foreign languages symbolises emotions and experiences that perplex the dreamer. But what if, on waking, you were to write down sentences in a foreign language that you cannot speak but which translates into something intelligible? If this were the case, you would have experienced Xenoglossy and may have received information from clairvoyance. Interestingly, practitioners of the medieval magick of John Dee believe that there is a special language of heaven called the ‘Enochian Language’ that is whispered to the sleeper by the angels. Dee claimed that Adam and Eve were the first people to speak the Enochian language and many modern magickians believe it was the original language of Atlantis.
This is a copyrighted extract from my book Your Secret Dream Meanings by Craig Hamilton-Parker ( ISBN 1-4027-0474-7 Sterling Publishers 2004 )
Would you like to Know More?
