Foreverhelpful - Perhaps I gave this very serious topic a shorter response than it deserved.
I do not mean to imply by psychosis that the practioners are suffering from a strict clinical disorder as may be defined in the DSM IV.
What I really mean by using the term Group Psychosis, is that certain Psychotic features manifest themselves in the group environment and are reinforced by the overall group conduct.
Merriam-Webster defines psychosis as a "...derangement of the mind ...characterized by defective or lost contact with reality especially as evidenced by delusions, hallucinations, and disorganized speech and behavior "
With deranged merely meaning 'to disturb the operation or functions of'...
During tongue talking certainly the functions of the mind have been disturbed to the extent that the subjects experience at the very least delusions, and disorganized speech and behavior.
The fact that others around you are experiencing the same thing validates what you are doing so that you feel the experience is real and not delusional.
Even though I pretty much reject "Acts" as being totally unsound theologically, assuming that I would use it as proof of the gift of tongues, the most I could make of it is that it was a gift disposed so fellow Christians from distant lands could get together and communicate in an effort to further their ends which was the spread of the Gospel.
I would regard the gift of tongues as described in Acts to be merely the gift of translation not the gift to speak in total jibberish.
And I would maintain it is total jibberish. There have been numerous studies by linguists in which the speaking in tongues was analyzed. There is simply no discernable rules of a language such as structure, grammar and volcabulary.
I do not discount the possibility that the participants get something out of the experience. But I would characterize as something more akin to music or a mantra than any form of communication as the word 'speaking' would imply.
There is a delusional belief that there is some special gift of language going on, it is characterized by distortions in belief, behaviour and communication. If this is not a form of psychosis I do not know what I would characterize it as.
