Speaking in German without Knowing German

I just finished my second year at college, and I decided to visit the people at the school since they kept asking about me.

It was going well until something someone told me spooked me. Before I graduated, I had a mental breakdown at the school. I thought I just spoke with a German accent when I was sick but according to the principal I was speaking perfect German. The staff at the school actually called her, since she came from Germany, so she could translate what I was saying. Not only that but, according to her, I described the German geography in a very detailed matter. I said I lived there, and I wanted to go back home.

They sent me to a psych ward, and I got worse (their different psychotropics did not work) so my parents yanked me out. At home, I was able to recover on my own, and I do not recall what really happened. When I recovered, my ability to speak in German disappeared. I went to college less than three weeks later, and I did fine.

I have no clue what do think about this. I consider myself a logical person. I must have had this knowledge from somewhere. Possibly, when I had that mental breakdown, the memory component of my brain was unrestricted so I was able to speak in German, and recall vivid map details.

The problem is I never was exposed to people speaking in German or that amount of detail about life in Germany.

I thought this would be interesting discussion and fit here because:

Epistemology primarily addresses the following questions: "What is knowledge?", "How is knowledge acquired?", and "What do people know?"

reply to post by DavinciThales


Do u believe in Past Life, Rebirth?

Guten Tag!

I once spoke German as well, and now I do not. However my experience is a little easier to explain. I lived in Germany while I was learning to speak, and moved back to the States at the age of 4. Apparently from what I'm told by family, I even had a perfect German accent. Everything I said was in German, even though both my parents were Americans who spoke English as their first language.

Funny thing is, through middle school to college, I attempted to take German 6 times, and failed every single time! Go figure.

Very interesting and fascinating! I've spoken French in my sleep before
..it really tripped me out getting told that after I woke up.

Ahh then in your past life you are probably a German. I remember one time about a British guy that could speak Persian without even learning it and it turns out in his past life he is a Persian Diplomat

youtube or it didnt happen
2nd

Hi DavinciThales,

There is a term for what you experienced: xenoglossy.

Ian Stevenson, a medical doctor, traveled the world investigating cases of children who remember past lives.

He wrote a number of books on this subject, one of which had a specific focus on xenoglossy.

Here's the Wikipedia page on xenoglossy:

en.wikipedia.org...

Well, now that you are in college, you will probably have to take a foreign language class, so why not try German. I took a year of it, and had a lot of fun. You could compare your rate of learning to other students in your class and see if you have an 'edge'. It would also be neat to see if you have a good accent right off the bat.

So, defining knowledge as "more or less detailed familiarity with someone or something" (taken from Wikipedia), then it seems you may have some familiarity and thus knowledge of German, in some way, despite your thread title.

Is it possible that you had a great uncle, or another family member that may have been involved in the war and had taken up German? (And perhaps you were around them as a child and heard them speaking?) I was surprised to find that I had a couple of relatives that could speak German, and I never would have found out about them if I hadn't specifically asked.

I'm also of the belief that our minds are capable of really odd things. For example, let us say an individual had watched a movie in German as a child. Then years later, some random and very unlikely occurrence set up triggers of stimulations throughout neural pathways ultimately allowing the individual to access that old auditory information and to repeat the words they heard in the movie. Do you think this is possible?

Anyway, German rocks!

As others have suggested, you should look into past lives and reincarnation. Sometimes little traces of past lives can make their way into this life.

Perhaps what triggered your breakdown, some how... reminded you of some past life experience and sort of took you back in a way?

This is interesting to me. I have dreamed in German many times and I don't speak German. When I was in Germany for a few month mostly drinking the people in my dreams weren't speaking English and I have no idea what was being said or if it isn't just gibberish. I think it's correct German.

My best guess is that German is very easy to comprehend for the human brain with very few queues and your sub-conciousness only has to hear something once.

As opposed to the past life theory, I think it may be genetic. I have to assume that languages are past down...

I have a friend with a Welsh accent. He was born in Australia but his ancestors are welsh. It seemed to be a throw back. I have German ancestry. I have looked for German traits in my uncles speech who he was a third generation Aussie and I started to see a lot of oddities we wouldn't normally recognise.

I think that if you live in an area where many Germans settled, they may speak English but many nuances of their past heritage are preserved.

Your sub-conciousness is unfettered. It may just be making things up, but without any hindrances you can have excellent German, I think...

I don't know how this works, but it happens to me a lot. When I was quite young I used to dream of things I still don't have the technological background to understand, but these were cutting edge technologies and can't be from a past life.

I think there are plains of existence that aren't ever very far away. There is a shared stream of thought going around the globe as we speak, but maybe the details of this phenomenon aren't magical. More likely there are too many nuances of human sensation and ideas sharing at large, never spoken about, or never fully taken into account, which are far more wide reaching than we suspect.

reply to post by AlphaBetaGammaX

I'm also of the belief that our minds are capable of really odd things. For example, let us say an individual had watched a movie in German as a child. Then years later, some random and very unlikely occurrence set up triggers of stimulations throughout neural pathways ultimately allowing the individual to access that old auditory information and to repeat the words they heard in the movie. Do you think this is possible?

I do.

I think that it's a small task for the human brain. It happens when you aren't controlling your limitations etc.

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
As others have suggested, you should look into past lives and reincarnation. Sometimes little traces of past lives can make their way into this life.

Perhaps what triggered your breakdown, some how... reminded you of some past life experience and sort of took you back in a way?

I don't think it was a past life. I have no clue what triggered my breakdown. I was not reminded about Germany in any way. Life was going great and then I started to have a dense feeling in my head, my spine felt like it was burning, etc. I think this was entirely neurological.

Is it possible that you had a great uncle, or another family member that may have been involved in the war and had taken up German? (And perhaps you were around them as a child and heard them speaking?) I was surprised to find that I had a couple of relatives that could speak German, and I never would have found out about them if I hadn't specifically asked.

My Great Grandfather translated the instruction manual (which was in German) for Nazi machinery for the Allies during WWII. He never, ever spoke German to us before. From what I know, he forgot it since he never used it again after WWII. No one in my family knows German either.

We have nothing but your word on this and on the web . That sucks.

Originally posted by randyvs
We have nothing but your word on this and on the web . That sucks.

I don't expect anyone to believe me. I am aware word is weak proof and skepticism is a natural response. For the sake of the discussion, just assume I am telling the truth.

It's not like I am asking for money or trying to sell a book either. I just really wanted people's input on this since it is bizarre.

It might have been recorded in my medical records when I stayed at the facility, but I have no response when I request the records. And even if it was an actual case of recorded Xenoglossy, they could not share that information without my consent since it is considered medical.[

As someone who, personally, doesn't believe in past lives/reincarnation let me give you an alternate explanation (it's the same explanation that I use to explain any of the evidence given for the past life phenomena).

Basically it revolves around Jung's idea of the collective unconscious, and the fact that we are all connected at an unconscious level.

The idea is that we have innate access to everything that was ever known by anybody anywhere. I have no doubt that there are certain connections that are stronger, and I think you may have some kind of psychic link to someone from Germany (whether past, present, or even future). I believe that, during times of intense stress or emotional turmoil (or just in normal times) our minds sometimes 'activate' those connections, and knowledge that does not 'belong' to us is streamed into our minds so naturally that it feels like it is our own.

I'm open to other beliefs, and I could be wrong in my own belief - but somehow reincarnation just doesn't seem to gel with me. The idea of a global interconnectedness between people of the past, present and future seems just as likely an explanation for any evidence presented as being in support of reincarnation.

reply to post by DavinciThales


Al right fair enough. Now it sounds like something you saw in a movie. I 'm kidding that was just the first thing I thought of to be a smartass. Let me read this again.

You say you had a break down and you don't remember ? You still have to be able to describe missing time or
some dream like stste or.... no what I mean? You should at least be able to say I remember up to such and such. Then blank, as in sleepyville. Then the next thing I remember is this ? Right?

I unlocked hidden memories when i had my regression. Past life trauma didnt go well for me.

Originally posted by DavinciThales

Originally posted by gimme_some_truth
As others have suggested, you should look into past lives and reincarnation. Sometimes little traces of past lives can make their way into this life.

Perhaps what triggered your breakdown, some how... reminded you of some past life experience and sort of took you back in a way?

I don't think it was a past life. I have no clue what triggered my breakdown. I was not reminded about Germany in any way. Life was going great and then I started to have a dense feeling in my head, my spine felt like it was burning, etc. I think this was entirely neurological.

Is it possible that you had a great uncle, or another family member that may have been involved in the war and had taken up German? (And perhaps you were around them as a child and heard them speaking?) I was surprised to find that I had a couple of relatives that could speak German, and I never would have found out about them if I hadn't specifically asked.

My Great Grandfather translated the instruction manual (which was in German) for Nazi machinery for the Allies during WWII. He never, ever spoke German to us before. From what I know, he forgot it since he never used it again after WWII. No one in my family knows German either.

edit on 8-6-2011 by DavinciThales because: (no reason given)

Hello INDIGO:

Yes research that one. relax as best you can and welcome to the illusion...It is all good!

I have picked up at any time... Navajo, Hopi, Aramaic, Tibetian, Chinese...etc..

However I am a Starseed..

Regards and Nameste,

-Chung

Sounds like some of the more naturalistic explanations have been mostly ruled out, according to the OP's testimony here.

While past lives are probably the most popular kind of alternative explanation, there are others that might make more sense, depending upon the circumstances.

I would ask the OP how prevalent the occult was / is in his / her life, or family, especially prior to the event.

Speaking in other languages has a long history, as others have pointed out, but to play the devil's advocate here, demonic possession was sometimes thought to be the best explanation in times gone by.

I'm not saying this was the case, but "if" there were such other beings, as angels and demons, they "could" possibly account for interesting phenomena. (Usually, there should be a reason though.)

Today, we might call these beings "hyperdimensional", with the best known being "reptilians" that can seemingly cloak themselves as humans, or even "infest" humans (David Icke kinds of critters).

SO, maybe consider the possibility. Certainly if there is an occult "connection", then it could be the smoking gun. Even seemingly "innocent" things like tarot cards, or Ouija boards, these might be somehow related.

JR

reply to post by TheStev


Oh to make this something we could control. Think of the scientific research we could do and the technology we could create if we had access to each other's ideas. It would be amazing. (Or horrible!)
I am really fascinated by the collective unconscious. Perhaps it doesn't exist, but it is fun to think about.Perhaps it is just a vast web of energy we all share, or perhaps each experience we have is encoded in our DNA and our cells can occasionally translate it into a thought.