Abstract

What happens in the brain when people choose to let go? While neuroscientists have studied how meditation sharpens attention and cultivates compassion, the voluntary surrender of agency remains largely unexplored. Speaking in tongues, practiced by an estimated 500 million people worldwide, provides a rare empirical window into this phenomenon: practitioners deliberately relinquish linguistic control and often report experiences of renewal and increased social engagement.

Drawing on anthropology, phenomenology, and neuroimaging, Joshua Brahinsky presents findings from ethnographic work alongside fMRI and EEG studies conducted in both laboratory and church settings. The results suggest a distinct neural signature associated with the release of agency, including reduced activity in regions involved in action planning and top-down control alongside increased global connectivity. Interestingly, greater surrender was associated with higher creativity scores and richer brain activity, and experienced practitioners reported feeling more empowered and socially connected.

These findings raise a broader question for both anthropology and neuroscience: how do culturally embedded practices produce paradoxical states in which letting go becomes a way of gaining agency?