Glossolalia and dying

[Zeno11]

My beloved mother, RIP, passed away just days before last Christmas at the age of 91. She was not on any kind of drugs and was still living at home. Two days before she died, she woke up as usual in the morning but began speaking in what I can only call ‘glossolalia’; she spoke to all of us in unintelligble sentences that sounded a bit like she was speaking backways. She was very animated and quite excited. It lasted for about 10 or 15 minutes and then she spoke quite normally again.

It really frightened me and was somehow very disturbing to listen to. Is this common, and what does it mean? She went on to talk, eat and drink quite normally (well, normal for her; she wasn’t eating very much) for another day and a half before she died. I have read all kind of things about this but would like a Catholic perspective.

 

[Cricket2]

What you have described is very common when someone is dying. I have been present at the death of many family members as their primary care giver and as a nurse aid in nursing homes.

Sometimes weeks, but often days before death the person will start talking in a different language if they are multilingual or in “gibberish” that know one knows what they are saying. They will speak to dead relatives, talks about going on trips or going home. They will also become very energetic and animated as you call it.

This is often more related to a type of anxiety and lowering oxygen levels and other chemical imbalances related to organ shut down. They will stop eating at a time closer to death, which concerns people because we often want to feed them to keep them going. There is no need. They will also stop drinking as they simply can’t swallow.

I knew a priest very well, who also had worked with the dying, and two weeks prior to his own death he felt really good, energetic and ambitious. He told me, “Well I guess I am going to die in a week or so, I am having that energy burst.” Since we both knew what he was talking about I could only agree with him. He was just glad to be able to tell someone that he knew what was coming as he had been ill a long time.

Please don’t worry about what you saw or what happened. You are describing very usual events in the dying process. May God grant you peace in this matter.

 

[Bonnie]

This is often more related to a type of anxiety and lowering oxygen levels and other chemical imbalances related to organ shut down. They will stop eating at a time closer to death, which concerns people because we often want to feed them to keep them going. There is no need. They will also stop drinking as they simply can’t swallow.

Even knowing this, it’s difficult to see it happen. When my mother was dying I found myself urging her to eat & drink - and I knew better! I keep telling family members to leave my body alone when it’s my time to die - but do pray for me.

 

[Truth_Faith13]

What you have described is very common when someone is dying. I have been present at the death of many family members as their primary care giver and as a nurse aid in nursing homes.

Sometimes weeks, but often days before death the person will start talking in a different language if they are multilingual or in “gibberish” that know one knows what they are saying. They will speak to dead relatives, talks about going on trips or going home. They will also become very energetic and animated as you call it.

This is often more related to a type of anxiety and lowering oxygen levels and other chemical imbalances related to organ shut down. They will stop eating at a time closer to death, which concerns people because we often want to feed them to keep them going. There is no need. They will also stop drinking as they simply can’t swallow.

I knew a priest very well, who also had worked with the dying, and two weeks prior to his own death he felt really good, energetic and ambitious. He told me, “Well I guess I am going to die in a week or so, I am having that energy burst.” Since we both knew what he was talking about I could only agree with him. He was just glad to be able to tell someone that he knew what was coming as he had been ill a long time.

Please don’t worry about what you saw or what happened. You are describing very usual events in the dying process. May God grant you peace in this matter.

This!

The healthcare industry is filled with all sorts of stories surroundings peoples deaths. From the patients being visited by dead relatives, to cats keeping company those about to pass to electric shocks to patients talking gibberish. It’s all part of the “calm before the storm”.

 

[DaveBj]

This!

The healthcare industry is filled with all sorts of stories surroundings peoples deaths. From the patients being visited by dead relatives, to cats keeping company those about to pass to electric shocks to patients talking gibberish. It’s all part of the “calm before the storm”.

Or, perhaps more accurately, the storm before the calm.

 

[GEddie]

The healthcare industry is filled with all sorts of stories surroundings peoples deaths. From the patients being visited by dead relatives, to cats keeping company those about to pass to electric shocks to patients talking gibberish. It’s all part of the “calm before the storm”.

Electric shock??

 

[Truth_Faith13]

Electric shock??

Only a little one, not the big voltage kinds, from the bodies of those who have passed.

 

[GEddie]

Only a little one, not the big voltage kinds, from the bodies of those who have passed.

Wow.

I’d never heard of this.

Does a charge emit from the dead body? Or, still alive? Or does someone get zapped when touching them?

ICXC NIKA

 

[Truth_Faith13]

Wow.

I’d never heard of this.

Does a charge emit from the dead body? Or, still alive? Or does someone get zapped when touching them?

ICXC NIKA

It’s after they have died…those attending to them (washing them etc) have experienced an electric shock and seen a spark too (I guess it’s similar to when two people touch and give each other a shock).

There are many tales in healthcare…some say the electric shock is the souls leaving the body. it could just be the normal phenomenon of giving each other an electric shock (but can that happen when the one person is deceased?)

Some of the tales probably have rational explanations but some do make you wonder. Personally I think the electric shock one probably has a rational explanation.

One healthcare told me of a situation which is funny now but wasn’t when it happened where she was tending to a double amputee who had died in his chair. They were attempting to press the stumps down which caused the body to jump up releasing air that had been trapped in the lungs. She left the room quite quickly. Obviously this has a perfectly rational explanation, but you can see how stories start.

Personally I like the cute ones…patients telling me their relatives are coming to get them. Animals who go and tend to their owners just before they die etc.

 

[Zeno11]

Thank you for your replies. I was aware that dying people lose their appetite etc but I had never come across the ‘gibberish’ language before and found it quite unsettling. I didn’t mind all the visits from the dead relatives who had been cluttering up my mum’s house for over a year - I found that quite comforting in fact, that they were coming to help her on her way. My dad apparently arrived one evening and when she asked him what he wanted, he told her he’d come to collect her and was she ready to go? She told me later ‘I told him I wasn’t going any where with him!’

Thank you for your kind wishes.

 

[GEddie]

It’s after they have died…those attending to them (washing them etc) have experienced an electric shock and seen a spark too (I guess it’s similar to when two people touch and give each other a shock).

There are many tales in healthcare…some say the electric shock is the souls leaving the body. it could just be the normal phenomenon of giving each other an electric shock (but can that happen when the one person is deceased?)

Some of the tales probably have rational explanations but some do make you wonder. Personally I think the electric shock one probably has a rational explanation.

One healthcare told me of a situation which is funny now but wasn’t when it happened where she was tending to a double amputee who had died in his chair. They were attempting to press the stumps down which caused the body to jump up releasing air that had been trapped in the lungs. She left the room quite quickly. Obviously this has a perfectly rational explanation, but you can see how stories start.

Personally I like the cute ones…patients telling me their relatives are coming to get them. Animals who go and tend to their owners just before they die etc.

Thank you for your explanation. I had never heard of electric charges in death.

This in fact seems to me, a whole lot more likely to be “special” than some of the other attested occurrences (smiling and a peaceful face, etc, could be just the muscles relaxing; euphoria prior to death could be a lack of oxygen to the head; etc).

But the only reason the human body becomes electrically charged while alive is movement (scuffing feet on carpet, etc) and the dead do not move! Also, lying down, the body is “grounded” and would not hold any charge he or she has picked up.

It could well be the movement of the soul, etc, causing this. IMNAAHO.

ICXC NIKA

 

[njlisa]

When my mother was in the last few weeks of her life, she suffered a transient ischemic attack, also referred to as a mini-stroke. I cannot describe to you how frightening it was. She was speaking gibberish – but desperately trying to communicate. When she died, after all of us visited with her, she was taken to the funeral home. And they didn’t report anything strange happening.

 

[Cricket2]

Even knowing this, it’s difficult to see it happen. When my mother was dying I found myself urging her to eat & drink - and I knew better! I keep telling family members to leave my body alone when it’s my time to die - but do pray for me.

Yes it is difficult. By nature none of us wants to die and we want to assist those in danger of dying to prevent it. So in a case like this we still want to offer food and water. When my grandfather was dying my grandmother still wanted him to eat the day or two prior to his death. I finally had to tell her that she had to stop, and tell him it was OK to go.

She did not want him to die, but she did finally spend the last two or three days with him simply holding his hand and talking to him. It was I am sure the hardest thing she ever did.

 

[Zeno11]

Yes it is difficult. By nature none of us wants to die and we want to assist those in danger of dying to prevent it. So in a case like this we still want to offer food and water. When my grandfather was dying my grandmother still wanted him to eat the day or two prior to his death. I finally had to tell her that she had to stop, and tell him it was OK to go.

She did not want him to die, but she did finally spend the last two or three days with him simply holding his hand and talking to him. It was I am sure the hardest thing she ever did.

It is the hardest thing we ever have to do. I really feel for your grandmother, Even with our faith in the life to come, its so hard letting our loved ones go and facing life without them. I still can’t get used to being on the planet without my mum, and I’m also currently nursing my uncle who is 87 and has a malignant melanoma. I’m truly dreading going through it again, it just breaks your heart.

 

[CB_Catholic]

When my MIL was dying, she lay around in a comatose state for a few days, then one day she woke up, said she had to urinate, we assisted her to the potty chair and she began to chat up a storm. We put her back to bed and she fell back into a coma and died that night. It was strange.

What was also strange is that she waited to actually die for when she was alone. The family had been in the bedroom and the bed with her, but when my FIL got up to go to the bathroom, she died. I had witnessed this before as a nurse with dying patients–they often will not die until they are alone, so I was not too surprised.