The second-century Gnostics claimed that among ordinary Christians lived the pneumatikoi, elite believers who possessed spiritual wisdom beyond that of their peers. The pneumatikoi could speak in tongues—a phenomenon called glossolalia—as evidence of being possessed by the Spirit; though occasionally intelligible, glossolalia “for the most part … consisted of frenzied, inarticulate, incoherent, ecstatic speech.” The psychiatric term for inarticulate, babbling speech is “schizophasia,” or “word salad,” and it is one of the more visible symptoms of schizophrenia. Incoherent speech may indicate
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