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GLOSSOLALIA INFLUENCES ON STRESS RESPONSE
AMONG APOSTOLIC PENTECOSTALS
Christopher D. Lynn – University at Albany, State University of New York
Deposited 3/8/2018
Citation of dissertation:
Lynn, C.D. Glossolalia Influences on Stress Response Among Apostolic Pentecostals.
Ph.D. Dissertation, the University at Albany, State University of New York, 2009.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
GLOSSOLALIA INFLUENCES ON STRESS RESPONSE
AMONG APOSTOLIC PENTECOSTALS
by
Christopher Dana Lynn
A Dissertation
Submitted to the University at Albany, State University of New York
in Partial Fulfillment of
the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
College of Arts & Sciences
Department of Anthropology
2009
UMI Number: 3366121
Copyright 2009 by
Lynn, Christopher Dana
All rights reserved
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Glossolalia Influences on Stress Response
among Apostolic Pentecostals
by
Christopher Dana Lynn
COPYRIGHT 2009
Abstract
This study tests the hypothesis that long-term experience of Apostolic Pentecostal
glossolalia or “speaking in tongues” reduces the reactivity of biological stress response to
normal or “daily” stressors. Glossolalia is a form of religious dissociation. Dissociation
is a universal capacity often conflated with “trance.” It refers to the partitioning of
awareness associated with a variety of cross-cultural forms, from daydreaming and denial
to possession trance, shamanic spirit journeys, and dissociative identity disorder.
Dissociation is believed to reduce or filter stress by mediating evaluation of potential
stressors and reactivity of the mechanisms of biological stress response. Previous studies
have examined these mechanisms in clinical settings and in relation to secularized
dissociative phenomena, but few have attempted to evaluate the stress reducing and
filtering capacities of culturally relative dissociation in situ. This is important, as forms
of dissociation, such as meditation and hypnosis, are used in medical application for
improving health by reducing stress. The current study sought to isolate a form of
culturally relative dissociation in assessing its influence on biological stress response.
This was accomplished through a two year investigation among Apostolics in New York’s
mid-Hudson Valley.
Pentecostalism is a form of evangelical Protestantism that rose to prominence
over the 20th century to become a global phenomenon. Apostolics are a traditional
denomination defined by belief in glossolalia as absolutely necessary to convey
acceptance of Christ. Sixty participants were sampled with regard to glossolalia,
biological stress, and other relevant factors. Biological stress was measured by collecting
saliva samples to measure diurnal cycles of cortisol and α-Amylase production.
iii
The data suggest that glossolalia is suggestively associated with a reduction in
stress in response to normal stressors and significantly associated with positive mood and
calmness. This supports a growing body of work validating the health-improving affects
of religiosity and the claims of Pentecostals themselves. The broad implication of this
research is that dissociation plays a role in stress-related health outcomes in religious
dissociative contexts.
iv
Acknowledgements
I must thank the brethren of the Triumphant Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ and
Abundant Life Tabernacle for allowing me to spend the last two years among them
collecting the data reported in this study. Without their hospitality and amenability, this
study would never have been possible. The pastors of both churches, in particular, have
been incredibly accommodating, interested, and supportive, which made the entire effort
much easier than it might have been given the lack of precedent for a study of this type.
I am indebted to funding from a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant from
the National Science Foundation’s Cultural Anthropology Program, a Student Research
Grant from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion, a research grant from the
SUNY Benevolent Association, and a Doctoral Dissertation Research Grant from School
of Graduate Studies and a Research Grant from the Graduate Student Organization of the
University at Albany.
I thank my dissertation committee for encouragement and support in research
design and implementation. My advisor and dissertation chair Dr. Lawrence Schell
supported me in pursuing a research topic that truly interested me and continually
prodded me to evaluate the relevance of my expertise and skills set, as well as informally
setting deadlines sooner than I would have set them for myself. Despite the anxiety this
used to cause me, I would not have finished nearly as quickly or been as efficient had he
not, and I ultimately learned I could set seemingly unreasonable expectations of myself
and actually fulfill them. I am grateful to Dr. Walter Little for advising me to start
attending Pentecostal churches well in advance of beginning quantitative data collection
to establish a relationship, which was instrumental to the success of this study.
v
Additionally, he often helped reduce the anxiety that mounted when data collection
slowed down by telling me that qualitative research usually takes unexpected turns and
that no good cultural study is ever completed in the relatively short period of time
entailed in dissertation research, that when I’m done with this, I will probably be far from
done with the research. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Gordon Gallup, Jr. for welcoming
me into his evolutionary psychology lab. It was in there that I was able to test some of
the methods I employed in this study and to develop the interdisciplinary approach I will
continue to utilize in future research and academic endeavors.
I want to thank my undergraduate mentor, Dr. John Beatty of Brooklyn College,
who started me on this path, even when I detoured through two other graduate programs
and a stint as a museum educator. So much of what is in this dissertation began in one of
his classes, a conversation after class, or in a paper for one of his classes. When I thought
life had interceded and I would be unable to continue pursuing anthropology, he told me
to look in other departments for expertise that would complement what an anthropology
department could afford me. He taught me that anthropology should never be
constrained by being a ‘discipline’ yet was careful to encourage the rigorous applications
of its methods. He inspired me with the breadth of his experience and his
cantankerousness—a true anthropological renaissance man!
I thank Dr. Cheryl Frye for allowing me to conduct biochemical assays in her lab
and to her student and lab director Jason Paris for training me in conducting them.
I appreciate the assistance of my undergraduate research assistants from SUNY
New Paltz in collecting data and should thank Angela Brennon specifically for coming
through for me at the end when we were really under a time crunch.
vi
Lastly, but most importantly, I thank my family for their patience and support over
the long haul, uncertainty, and stress (I should have measured us!) of completing graduate
courses, the current study, and this dissertation. My wife Loretta has tended the home
fires and taken care of our three sons while I collected data and wrote, wrote and
collected more data, taught, presented, and collected even more data, ad infinitum. And I
want to thank Lux, Bailey, and Jagger for their patience with their dad while he ran off to
churches around town collecting spit and commuted daily over an hour away for five of
the first six years of their lives and for their continual interest in what I do. I like talking
to you, guys, almost as much about what I do as what you like to do, but now, I promise,
more time for soccer in the backyard!
vii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page …………………………………………………………………...…………….i
Copyright Page ...……………………………………………………………..…….....…ii
Abstract.............................................................................................................................iii
Acknowledgements...........................................................................................................v
List of Abbreviations......................................................................................................xiv
List of Tables..................................................................................................................xvii
List of Figures.................................................................................................................xix
FORWARD........................................................................................................................1
1. A BRIEF SYNOPSIS....................................................................................................1
2. RELIGION AND SCIENCE........................................................................................2
3. SUMMARY OF CHAPTERS.......................................................................................6
1. A BIOCULTURAL STUDY OF APOSTOLIC PENTECOSTALISM.................9
1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................9
2. BIOCULTURAL MODEL FOR PENTECOSTAL STRESS REDUCTION.................11
3. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CURRENT STUDY.........................................................16
3.1 BIOCULTURAL SYNTHESIS......................................................................................16
3.2 MEDICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY...................................................18
3.3 CULTURAL NEUROPHENOMENOLOGY.....................................................................19
3.4 ANTHROPOLOGY OF RELIGION...............................................................................20
4. CONTRIBUTION TO ANTHROPOLOGICAL THEORY AND DISCIPLINE..........21
5. SUMMARY................................................................................................................23
2. WHAT IS DISSOCIATION?.................................................................................25
viii
Description:of dissociation, such as meditation and hypnosis, are used in medical application for improving such as meditation, it is believed that what is otherwise the regular maintenance of a relationship with Ethiopia; the liban sheitan of Chad; the shaitani of the Digo of south Kenya; shetani of the Seg
