Lots of talk about brain-gasms and porn here, but what this movement seems more about to me is a rather sad attempt to fill the void of the sacred in contemporary millennial culture, which is largely materialistic, secular, sexualized, and increasingly Marxian, or at least socialist. John O'Donohue wrote, "Real intimacy is a sacred experience. It never exposes its secret trust and belonging to the voyeuristic eye of a neon culture. Real intimacy is of the soul, and the soul is reserved."
People as always are looking for soul, for connections with one other, with the universe. But many millennials are missing out on the traditional ways of finding those connections. It's fine to explore new paths, but the old ones, the invitations of Jesus and the Buddha, of the Sufis and the shamans, of the Talmud and the Tao, are open to the inquiring. No need to re-make the spirals of the universe. Just go outside on a clear night and see the Milky Way. Go talk to your neighbor. You are connected. You don't need a computer and YouTube to connect.
13
I would like to posit the theory that the unexplained sensations are fond memories of a time you can't remember. Most people can only remember back to when they were three or four years old but that doesn't mean that their aren't memories of those times deep in your brain. This can even include time in the womb. This is a time of thrilling sensations and intimate encounters, some late at night when one would hear whispers. This could also explain why the triggers are different for each person, we all share common rituals like hair brushing, but the color of the hair, the length of the hair and whether the hair being brushed is yours are specific to you, so you might feel odd about sharing the feeling. I've had these feelings all my life. The trigger was a pool. Was I remembering my first bath, being cradled and washed with a mother's loving touch? That could give someone a brain orgasm. If it comes from the brain, unbidden, It's probably a memory you didn't know you forgot.
4
Not sure how this is different from thinking "wow, that's COOL". It's like "me, me, me, I'm so special".
I remember talking to a co-worker who mentioned she was a synesthete. She was going on about meeting people "like her" and how "there are only a few of us out there" and how "special we are". When she talked about seeing colors and feeling touch when hearing music and associating numbers with colors, I said "yeah, who doesn't?". She was taken aback and started explaining how she was DIFFERENT and SPECIAL.
We are ALL different and special. If you sit and think about how amazing it is to be typing, to be communicating with others, to be breathing and have your autonomous nervous system TCB, well, that's wonderful.
A bunch of chicks (full disclosure - I'm a chick) sitting around talking about feeling "WOW" when they see something simple, that reminds me of the nutty guy seeing the double rainbow. Yes, sir, there is such a thing as a double rainbow, you're seeing it now, and it is indeed radical. End of story.
I certainly agree that sensory-seeking and sensory-avoiding aspects of autism are part of this, and aren't considered "SPECIAL" in the way this woman thinks they are...
1
this from the article ..."Today the action of A.S.M.R. plays out almost exclusively on YouTube, where legions of (mostly female) creators release, by my count, around 500 new videos each day. Over the course of reporting this article, I spent at least 200 hours on the site, watching women chewgum, swallow octopus sashimi, simulate eye exams, turn pages ofbooks and peel dried glue off artificial ears. I watched a teenage girl role-play as a 14th-century nun, treating me for the bubonic plague. I watched a two-hour recording of hair-dryer sounds."
will we look back in a minute or year or decade on this type of idiocy as an embarrassment or an epiphany or nothing at all. and does the imprimatur of the NYT count at all for editorial quality or is it just more claptrap to generate more meaningless clicks. more time waiting in this our era of oh so self conscious mindfulness.
4
I experience ASMR and have since I was a child. But I never would have known what to call it before the internet enabled people with similar experiences to affirm the phenomenon. That's certainly one reason ASMR is having a moment.
It drives me a little crazy that every journalist who has covered ASMR doesn't experience it themselves. It's a very concrete sensory phenomenon, and whether you experience it is akin to whether you're a supertaster or not. There are more attractive young women with popular ASMR channels because there is a caretaking, artistic element to the content, so as with nursing or the performing arts, women are overrepresented. And attractive young women just generate more clicks period.
If you don't experience ASMR, it would be pretty impossible not to interpret it as sex-adjacent, but I promise it's really not. You *can make eating (fruit, whipped cream, whatever) a part of sex, but you don't have to. ASMR is the same. It's just a non-sexual sensory phenomenon, and no article I've ever read about it makes that point abundantly clear.
9
I was able to have this feeling when I was younger - actually well into my 20s. I mostly lost the ability to feel it when I took on tons of stress with a custody case, divorce, return to school, and stressful work all at the same time with no social life or partner for years until recently (no time or energy left).
I'm also in tech in Silicon Valley and generally the only (or close to it) woman in an engineering capacity anywhere I work. That brings its own special stress as it often feels like not only must we learn new tech and be productive like anyone else, but we're trying to overcome/reprogram stereotypes about women in tech (and that bias comes from men AND women). I was amused and not at all surprised that ASMR is popular with women in tech because of the unusual nature of our lives and typically passive aggressive environment.
I suspect all this stress keeps many of us from relaxing enough to feel such things as it is the opposite of the feeling of safety and comfort that's the foundation of relaxation.
And to the author, sometimes the first step towards relaxation when your environment and self-programming keeps you under pressure and wound tight, feeling like screaming may also be a side effect of the first relaxation of that pressure. Only you know if that's the case, but it might be worth exploring further someday.
1
It's very important to wear good stereo headphones, to be relaxed and focused (no distractions or potential distractions), and to have a quiet mind.
3
Beginning as a teenager and then a young adult I would get strong, pleasurable head tingles when I interacted with people who were very calm and talked softly--librarians, or sometimes nurses or teachers--and they helped me in a kind, solicitous way. When they occur you will do anything to continue the feeling--I remember asking endless, stupid questions of librarians in college simply to stay in this state of calm and relaxation produced by them. It was such a distinct and wonderful feeling that I too described it to friends and family members for years as "the head shivers" and eventually, like Jennifer Allen, looked it up and was shocked to find a whole growing online community. Until then I never knew that anyone else had this experience, or that anyone was in the business of trying to trigger it. For me very few of the videos work at all: there is something distinctly human required to elicit my tingles, and something very rooted in the feeling of being taken care of, of being in the presence of someone of kindness and caring. They don't feel sexual at all, more related to being a child, being care for, and calmed. The other trigger that isn't mentioned much here but is important is scent: light perfume or cologne has a strong effect.
11
“We get most of our nutrition from our food, but we may supplement with vitamin pills. That’s how I view A.S.M.R. videos. There are very few people that are probably going to substitute real-world relationships.”
Is this man familiar with the internet?
1
I've often said if I win the lottery I'll employ someone to play with the back of my hair. A light touch along the upper neck is pleasant, but I don't believe this sensation is what's being referred to in the article.
Even if it is, watching a video doesn't have the same effect as actual touch.
I've never watched any of these videos, but from the article description it seems the activities involved invoke memories of being cared for or indulged during childhood.
4
This is the sensation Emily Dickinson described when asked about poetry in the 1860s: "If I feel physically as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry. These are the only ways I know it. Is there any other way?”
3
The sound of sprinklers, especially the ones staked into the ground with a rotating spigot that sounds like, "ch, ch, ch, ch" in rapid succession and then the sound of it rotating again...that sprinkler noise is the BEST! Certain days when the wind blows through tree tops in a specific way, or the look of a dusky sky with clouds streaked across it. In fact, just listing these things got my brain tingly.
2
I find the clicking and crinkling annoying.
Is there something wrong with me?
1
Reading this one recalls a similar, sinister avidity in the description of the cult leader Bhagwan Shri Rajnish telling his very wealthy followers [and there were no other kind] that if they pressed upon their eyeballs, they would see the Inner Light.
1
a baloon with no skin.
I had no knowledge of the ASMR phenomenon on Youtube until I read this article but, under some circumstances, I predictably feel the sensations described. For me, the French Horn solo near the beginning of the 2nd movement of Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 is a reliable trigger of the thrilling sensations but there are many more.
Whether ASMR is the best term or not, I now have a name for what I feel. It is clear that we still have much to learn about ourselves and how we relate to the world.
4
This sounds to me like the sensation of ch'i circulation, possibly a mild "kundalini" experience--subtle sensory experiences known and understood in other cultures.
Our culture has no knowledge or understanding of these phenomena and has lacked language for it.
It's interesting that it is emerging spontaneously like this. Crinkling cellophane is an odd, indirect, quirky approach, but sounds like a similar experience!!! Whatever works, I suppose!
2
I watched the video and the sounds triggered me to squirm, feeling annoyed.
I do experience the awesome sensation that Jennifer Allen does when watching any videos of space. I feel the tingles you speak of and find myself taking a deep breath and lose the sense of my body becoming one with the great expanse of our universe. In my little office, I have pictures of our Big Blue Marble and numerous pictures from Hubble. Like Ms. Allen I can not explain why.
This article confirms that we are all beautiful and unique individuals. "To each his/her own" as to the sounds and sensation that leave us with a feeling of pleasure or those that trigger a negative feeling we flee from.
I remember reading "The Hobbit" and the bit about "me precioussssss" with a real emphasis on the ssssssss. That was my introduction to ASMR. I love it.
1
When I was a teenager, the tingling/buzzing head feeling I had I associated with something bad happening. Usually not catastrophic, but definitely not good.
I scared a friend of mine by letting her know when something was going to happen(though I didn't know what) and several things did that evening. Everything from breaking a dish to her parents fighting and her little brother hurting himself.
I still get that tingle/buzz in my head once in a while but I haven't associated it with any particular sound or visual stimulus. It is nice to know that I'm not the only one with such experiences.
I have had what seems similar to this so-called ASMR since I was a kid, but mostly when I was younger -- rarer as I got old, to my dismay. But mine sensations went beyond what has been described here.
I remember the warn tingling sensation when my aunt talked to me. But I also remember literally feeling like I was floating out of my physical body sometimes, just when I was absorbed reading a book. One time I recall getting that out-of-body experience while reading in class full of high school sophomores. I remember as a young kid being totally hypnotized by the sound of a window fan as I was drifting off to sleep. Later, an even more intense feeling sleeping outside next the ocean in Oregon.
I also remember as a college student, walking a ways into the Maine woods and sitting down in a thicket, remaining motionless as birds flew onto branches just inches from my face and looking at me. At that point I felt as if my body was part of the tree I was leaning on.
One of the most incredible experiences, again as a college student, was being initiated into TM (I didn't practice it for long, however.) As the teacher chanted I literally felt myself coming out of my body and floating around the room.
Later in life, although I am not religious, I used to go to church (UU as they are the least god-struck) mainly because I loved the few minute mediation time when it felt like my back was melting into the pew. (that and the music)
1
whatever separates one from reality is not a bad thing......unless it is.....sts
1
One more tool for advertisers to use to manipulate us into buying stuff we don't need...
I remember this as the 'Tingler', the 1959 movie. And at 75 I still have it, but it's certainly not anything like an orgasm. It's just a feeling that creeps up your spine that sort of feels like you bumped your elbow, but not as intense. The original tingler was fear inspired as I remember it, but I get it sometimes just talking about it. My wife doesn't experience it, but I do, lots. Enjoyable, maybe.
3
My A.S.M.R. is Miles Davis playing an open trumpet.
4
Tinnitus does it for me
2
I have always gotten ASMR from in-flight airline safety demonstrations, even as a kid. Something about the person silently acting out what the other attendant is reading through the intercom does it... Similar situations trigger it too, like people performing some minute task carefully and deliberately with their hands, or to narration. Those wire head massager manually stimulate the sensation, but the way those do it is way too intense and unpleasant; it's like a painful ASMR overdrive. None of the ASMR YouTube videos have ever done a thing for me, save for mild ASMR reactions to chiropractor and massage videos. I wish they did work for me because it would be nice to get the sensation without having to buy a plane ticket.
3
They used to call this laying on the sofa watching Bob Ross paint on TV...
5
Yeah . . . This was big news two or three years ago . . .
This confirms my suspicion that the world is becoming more boring.
1
@Rage Baby
Yeah. I read this article instead of carrying out my plan to spend an hour in my yard watching a tree grow.
1
Interesting. So, I gave it a try and watched the Gibi video but all I could think of is SNL skits and so, the video made me laugh.
The reflection in her glasses bothered me and she needs some lip gloss because her lips look too dry. lol
Also, after a while as the whispering continued, it became annoying, I got bored.
I guess I'm not a tingler. But I love comedy so, this for me was hilarious and tickled my funny bone.
4
““A lot of the visuals you might see” in A.S.M.R. videos “relate to how you might visualize what happens during healthy foreplay,” Craig Richard says. “People talking gently to each other, people touching each other lightly, gazing into each other’s eyes, expressing physical or vocal care for each other — making the other person feel safe.””
If a video of a woman tapping a wooden bowl is how you visualize healthy foreplay, you better step up your game.
6
Radiohead and Bob Ross ! this to me. It's like plugging into the matrix...
1
As we said in the 1960s, “What’s so bad about feeling good?” 😀
2
I have a different sort of physical effect when I eat butter. Usually a small amount like you get when you lick you plate after eating toast
When the butter hits the back of my throat my eyes go fuzzy and I feel light headed. The effect lasts for about 20 seconds. It’ both pleasant and a little disconcerting.
my wife and kids family knows about this but I’ve never share with anyone else. Maybe I should create a Facebook page to see if others have the same reaction? 😊
2
@Larry
Where do you buy your butter?
2
It's like the ASMR crowd never read of watched something spine-tingling. Talk about overcomplicating things and missing the forest for the trees.
2
Old School ASMR:
More often than not, I feel my scalp go ablaze when listening to Soundgarden, especially the volcanic vocals of Chris Cornell. The hairs on my neck and arms literally tingle. As close to religious ecstasy, I suspect, as I'll ever feel. Whatever is going on, things simply short circuit as I am overwhelmed. I shall take it as a sign that when I linked to the first asmr video, the next vid in my feed was Soundgarden's 'Mailman.'
Follow your bliss.
2
I remember a weekly window washer at a former place of work. I would watch him soap up the glass and then methodically squeegee it away in graceful sweeps of the wiper. It calmed me instantly, and I would watch the whole time he was there.
I watch ASMR vids, and find some of them soothing to the point where I can often fall asleep.
1
@Zeus
"I watch ASMR vids, and find some of them soothing to the point where I can often fall asleep."....
Yeah. It's called boredom.
2
Can the Times do ONE article about ASMR without pondering whether its sexual in nature? Yeah, we get it. People who don't have it wonder, because it is a sensual thing. But you've reported on it enough to know by now that its not by and large sexual. Please stop perpetuating the idea that its some kind of kink.
3
@kathy It is very much sexual, just look at youtube asmr it's barley one step removed from being camsite worthy.
Eeeew. The visuals and sounds are creepy, gross, and disgusting.
The hypnotically rotating circle I watch while waiting for the video to appear, on the other hand, puts me to sleep.
2
Whenever I look at the cover of Bruce Springsteen’s River album, I get a fleeting strangely nostalgic euphoric feeling that only lasts a nano-second and then disappears. I first looked at this album when I was a young teen and now in my fifties, seeing Bruce’s face up close (something to do with his huge soulful eyes) on this same album seems to take me directly back to my fourteen-year-old self, if only for a brief joyous moment. I didn’t know anyone else experienced anything like this. For me, it only works looking at that one album and I’ve never mentioned it to anyone because it’s so hard to describe. It also sounds weird. Now I see I’m not alone. I love brain science and would love to learn more about all of this!
3
Probably already mentioned, but the author Walker Percy described ASMR in his 1971 novel Love in the Ruins.
2
Lots of people making these videos and watching them who have a lot of time on their hands.
Oodles of time being wasted.
Good luck with that.
1
Watch monkeys or apes grooming. It’s ASMR without the over-thinking— the tactile intimacy; the oral sounds heard best when a friend rakes your fur for lice, fleas, and other edible bits. Humans must have some dna memory of this commonplace bonding practice, no?
3
@Paul Vitello
No. Really...no.
If you want a thrill without a pill or a video try an ancient Chinese back scratcher. The five teeth of mine have almost been worn out as we cascade through Trumpville.
3
@Jim Dwyer Too good!
There is a drug called Midodrine, which is used to treat sudden blood pressure drops and fainting. I used to have to take it. One of the side effects was a tingling sensation in the scalp caused when the blood vessels constrict. (This is what raises your blood pressure to keep you from passing out.) I would think this is the same sensation. It’s probably connected to arousal.
2
"I can't get no satisfaction"...thanks God, they just invented ASMR!
1
In The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, Tom Wolfe referred to this experience as “mysto.” This of course was well before we largely replaced the experience of the natural world and our interactions therein with the screens and tin can audio of our preferred devices.
3
Watching someone polish my nails, Bob Ross, The Telybubbies- all gave me that tingling buzz in my brain. I can’t believe it’s a thing. I thought I was an oddball. How cool it this?
1
Amazing amazing amazing. Immediately after reading this piece, I saw the first pictures of the moon broadcast by Israel's latest scientific wonder. Prickles and tingles galore head to foot. When I was little, the moon was made of green cheese!
1
You guys know the scalp massage spiders are dirt cheap right?
3
Using a you-tube video when defenses down would make me worried about subliminal programming—
I watched Gibi's YouTube video - (ASMR) - Slowing Tapping and Whispered Trigger Assortment.
I quickly entered a quiet, focuses meditative state, although I did not feel any tingling.
I think the following writings refer, in various ways, to experiences which can occur when consciousness is quietly open to a "deeper level of being" of our inner and outer world.
(1) Haiku poem by Issa
What a strange thing
To be alive
Beneath the cherry blossoms
(2) Book - "Flight of the Wild Gander" by Joseph Campbell -
Quote from James Joyce - "Anything (forgetting its use and name) any object intensely regarded ... may be a gate of access ... its dimension of wonder opens; for the mystery of being of that thing is identical with the mystery of the being of the universe - and of yourself." - pg. 160
(3) Book - "Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal World"
- by Stephen Harrod Buhner
Amazon - look inside - 1st pages
The author describes a sudden boyhood mystical experience, during which - "... each sound seemed to almost shimmer ... every object in the room ... seemed almost like living stained glass, lit from within."
(4) Practices which involve visualization of the Qi energy may stimulate tingling in the meridian pathways.
(5) Book - "Kundalini: The Evolutionary Energy In Man"
- by Gopi Krishna - Feb 4, 1997 edition
Amazon - Look inside - 1st pages
See description of the author's intense meditative experience of the arising of the Kundalini energy.
2
I get this sensation if the water temperature of the shower is just right on the back of my neck
Emma me too! I love that feeling!
1
AND it's a laxative, a tranquilizer, a sleeping pill. Step up to the Big Red Wagon.
1
I thought everyone experienced this!
I get a precisely opposite sensation when I read articles like this.
3
My dog was transfixed by the videos.
3
I see three takeaways from this piece. That tinkly-crinkly feeling in the scalp when seeing/hearing /feeling something amazing that touches the soul. A numbing down of intrusive thoughts when focusing on white noise or other unintrusive, repetitive sounds. Youthful bliss recreated in waves of security and pleasure when having hair brushed, being lulled to sleep by loving whispers..three different physical /emotional responses. Or is that just me?
3
This sounds like the "piti" and "sukha" of the first jhana of Buddhist meditation. I've experienced it many times while meditating. It feels to me like a wave that spreads through my body and explodes out my head. Anyway, it was described by Buddha thousands of years ago and is nothing new or uncommon. Google "first jhana".
1
Listened. More or less an extended and narrated pop version of Xenakis' Concret PH. Snap, crackle, pop..... sounds good.
1
As we destroy nature, human connection,
and intimacy, expect Youtube videos
to propagate.
I guess we're too busy to listen to an album,
or have beautiful sex, or take a walk in the woods,
or drop in on a friend for a cup of tea?
3
The weird sensation might feel good to some, but there is a decidedly creepy, dark side to this phenomenon as well. Too many ASMR "performers" are scantily-clad young girls whose "noises" and actions are hyper sexual. I wasn't even aware of this ridiculousness until my high school students told me about it - and why they think it's so disturbing and potentially dangerous, especially for women.
1
When I experienced this as a child, I’d say that I felt like “ the top of my head is coming off.”
This article was shocking because the sensation is something I have never thought to talk about. The sensation is so very private and intensely pleasurable. The first memory of this sensation that I can recall happened at about age 9. The first few times, I thought something was the matter with my brain, a childlike fear. Then I learned to enjoy this sensation, go with it and hold on to it. Verbal language ruins the feeling and is never the source. It has to do with a deep, non verbal connection. Somehow, empathy seems to be involved, but not necessarily. The unexpected euphoric tingling in the back and sides of my head moves into the neck and is released downward into what feels like my spine. It’s unexplainable. Triggers come from visual stimulus (watching something) or audible source. Sometimes, I can make a similar sensation happen, if alone or with quiet company on a beach, late in the day. But this is more of a meditative, peaceful sensation. Meditative sensation is very different from the unexpected brain tingling euphoria.
When I was in fourth grade, I deliberately sat in the back of the room next to W. because she had a stuffy nose that made her mouth breathe. The particular way she mouth breathed, especially while doing math problems, gave me tingles all over. I think little girls are more familiar with ASMR than boys. A great many of us are familiar with childhood games of closing one's eyes and stroking a feather across a friend's face to make tingles. We just had no name for it.
2
Linked to going to sleep here - don’t mind being awakened so I can go to sleep again. If on my back (unpopular position for snorer) I’m more likely to tingle and have heard a suggestion re: blood flow to brain.
2
I've experienced this a million times and didn't know it had a name! It is extremely subjective - the YouTube videos strike me as just awful- I'm glad that many can trigger ASMR via the internet, but I'm old enough to want it just to happen naturally.
1
Oh, this. I've had this my entire life. Watching these videos in the article makes me crazy-- how do the video-maker girls know what triggers this? There's things I've never seen or thought of that just trigger the feeling. The nails, the noise, all of it. When I was a child I just felt it, but these videos can trigger the feeling. Fascinating.
Perhaps a look into the Buddhist meditative Jhanas is in order - a sensation known as "piti" seems to have something in common here ?
It's not really hard to see why asmr is so big now, all you have to do is look at the biggest channels for it, alot of it is more or less foreplay and at it's worst outright porn. It wasn't always so overtly sexual, but sex sells so thats what a lot of them turn to.
Honestly it seems every thing is being made sexual, and is it a bad thing i'm not sure, what i can say is it's gonna get odd going forward lol.
The term ASMR is useful as a description of a sensation in our body, but the approach of trying to achieve these tingling by manipulating objects to obtain some sort of personal pleasure is wrong. The response is in a way a gift. I believe that the response is spiritual in nature. In that sense not all people have the faculty to perceive this response. It has nothing to do with material things and is much more related to a communication of love that bridges our spiritual and material life. Each person’s faculty is different, some may feel the tingling while in meditation or in an normal conversation talking about loved ones that have passed.
In my case it is triggered when talking to friends and relatives that are in need of someone to talk to. Persons who have suffered the loss of loved ones, or that feel overwhelmed by life and its hardships need someone to listen to them. Listening well is not as simple as it sounds, but once it is done you can then search in yourself for the words that these persons need. The tingling is a manifestation trough you of the presence of the lost loved one. When you truly only have a selfless good will towards them, that is when you may feel the tingling in different parts of your body. ASMR feels good because you are doing a good act. It’s God’s way of saying thanks.
Try it
Sure, something makes your body feel weird, in a good way. I wonder if there's a bit of social cache involved with the labeling.
1
Wow I wonder if this is ASMR?
Unlike almost everyone else in the universe, I actually LIKE when kids kick the back of my seat on a flight. The key is that its non-rhythmic. It's entirely relaxing to me, and feels the way others have described ASMR.
1
It's not clear to me how the AMSR response differs from the pleasant sensation one (or myself at least) experiences from a particularly moving piece of music, art or (as someone else in the comments mentioned) sense of human connectedness - the pleasant chill going down the spine or goosebumps. Doesn't everyone experience this at one time or another? However, random noises have never had that effect on me. I'll have to try watching some of these videos, but having started to watch one of them, not sure I'll have the patience. I think I'll put on my favorite Puccini aria instead.
1
This article hit me like a howitzer shell. As a child I lived for the moments when I could watch over my artistically-talented (but poorly-educated) father's shoulder as he drew pictures. My physical responses to these sessions was overwhelming - but also a bit scary, because at that age I didn't quite know how to process them. A soothing sensation in my head, yes, but mostly I felt it in the center of my chest, almost as if my chest could explode with sensory overload; I became acutely aware of my breathing. Tingle is much too mild a description of what I felt. I have never spoken of these feelings (even to my father), and nothing I have experienced in life (I am now retired) has reproduced them. I have yet to watch any ASMR videos; I wanted to get my thoughts out first, without possibly clouding them by anything I might see. I will end with this: I would give anything to experience those feelings again -- and not just to associate them with my now-deceased father, but just to once again experience them. They were that powerful.
3
Library sounds create this sensation for me. People turning pages, writing in notebooks, etc. So relaxing it used to put me to sleep in grad school! But watching people create these sounds as in the video you shared turns me off.
1
I have felt this sensation since I was a very young child. I thought I was the only one who felt it because whenever I mentioned it to others I got a blank stare or a reference to something sexual or fetish-based.
When I became aware of ASMR as a phenomenon a few years back, I tried watching the videos, but they generally don't work for me. They try too hard. The key for me is to observe someone completely absorbed in a rhythmic activity where they are unaware that I am paying attention. As soon as there is any communication, verbal or otherwise, the spell is broken.
It is most definitely not a sexual thing for me, gender is not a factor. I would liken it to the state a cat is in while purring: Simply observing a comfortable scene of others doing things, and deriving existential pleasure from it.
I would agree with the idea that it seems related neurologically to what goes on in other primates during grooming rituals.
4
I have experienced the phenomenon I refer to as "Brain-tingling" ever since I can remember. I don't know what sound first catalyzed this sensation; I only know it felt wondrously stimulating. My hearing is acute, hypersensitive. Perhaps that may have something to do with it?
I used to get this feeling during the period of the second through seventh or eighth grades. If I relaxed and allowed it, the feeling could spread up and down from the back of my neck. I always associated it with some kind of lucky experience that would come and go in its own way.
The most often occurrence was in school, often after an hour or so of class, everything was settled, warm, the teacher would begin talking about something easy to absorb and then that relaxed state sort of invited the sensation. I would try to float with it, not manage it, and just let it present as it wished, though I did not personify it and I knew that it certainly was my experience of a physical tingling.
I have asked teachers about this and they usually were incredulous, so that stopped.
Thanks for the article. These experiences cannot be owned, possessed or denied to privacy, except by interruption. Perhaps like joint prayer, they may eventually be available as a shared experience.
2
I usually feel those sensations all over the body (among others) while practicing vipassana meditation.
I’ve had feeling of ecstatic joy since childhood. I’d describe it as a full feeling of happiness in my entire body, like an orgasm.
As it’s happening, I often burst out laughing and it is hard to hide or explain to the people I’m with.
The only physical trigger I know of is a chiropractic adjustment. It doesn’t happen every time but when it does, I am usually giggling on my drive home and trying to pair it with my favorite music.
Sensory triggers are more frequent but less lasting. Most often times it is when I’m listening to an employee who is going through some life trauma and I’m able to listen and point them in a direction of peace and comfort, leaving the conflict and trauma behind.
I’ve never been able to direct myself to this wonderful feeling. In this way, I always view it as a gift when it comes and enjoy it as long as it lasts.
1
I didn't know there was a name to this until recently. What's in it for me it's the cutting out of redundant noise and thus a gateway to focus. My favourite is "Toy Story asmr (FX only)" - a doll maker repairing a doll. When I'm tired after work or in a stressful environment it helps just to THINK about this clip.
Q: How is this different than the sense of rapture that writers and particularly deeply religious ones experience. It seems to be an overwhelming and joyous moment in which those who have had it experience oneness and tears of extreme happiness. Jonathan Edwards describes this in one of his books.
4
How is this not the human equivalent of trancelike feline 'kneading' activity on certain surfaces (usually soft and spongey), ostensibly (so I've heard) a residual motion by kittens for Mama to produce milk. As with everything involving humanity, perhaps ASMR is similar, just orders of magnitude more varied and complex in its stimuli?
5
I have experienced ASMR sensations since I was a child, and I am now 57. For me, the most reliable trigger is someone cleaning something near me. If they are absorbed in the activity, making soft wiping or spraying sounds, or if objects lightly contact each other and produce a sound, I feel a strong sense of contentment and a pleasurable tingling that starts at the top of my head. I am rooted to the spot in pleasure, and I don't want the moment to end (similar to a cat who is being petted on the head and is enjoying it, their eyes nearly closed and their bodies almost humming). For me, there is an even more pleasurable variation: if the person doing the cleaning is doing it slightly wrong (maybe using too much water on a wooden surface), the sensation is even stronger. It is not a sexual sensation at all. It is also not the same as the warm and fuzzy feeling I get when I read about or see a video on an act of kindness -- that heart-in-the-throat, deeply moved feeling in response to human goodness (that is an "ethics-gasm").
Sometimes a video can trigger ASMR for me, but not always; I feel the fleeting, unbidden nature of ASMR is part of the experience. ASMR is a feeling of deep contentment in the moment and I treasure it.
3
I have never heard of this phenomenon, but I've experienced it all my life, and much to my amusement, I experienced it repeatedly while reading the descriptions in this article. I'm reminded once again of the fact that whatever experiences or interests a person may have, regardless of how weird, arcane, or fleeting, there's a group out there somewhere on the internet, talking about it.
3
I have had these sensations since childhood. They are always attached to experiences of community, unexpected kindness, healing prayer and connection to the divine. As a chaplain, I used guided meditation with my patients and many of them described these feelings. And they aren’t just pleasurable but a call to offer compassion to others. Mystics such as Saint Teresa, Teilhard de Chardin, and the Dalai Lama also speak of these sensations as union with the divine.
2
This is fascinating- sound triggering a strong pleasant physical response. But please consider the opposite reaction- sounds which trigger disproportionately unpleasant responses. I was horrified to read that the sounds of eating or chewing gum evokes tingling pleasure to a lucky segment of the population- because there is another segment that dreads, fears, hates these very sounds, at great emotional and social cost. Instead of the pleasant sensation, we are victims of strong fight or flight responses to some sounds, and then, possibly by conditioning, to visual clues that precede or accompany our trigger sounds. My ever suffering spouse eats with a plastic fork and doesn’t blink when I run from a room or scene in near panic, or worse, when I erupt in anger, which then is augmented by guilt for being unable to either control myself or escape.
Recently this negative response to soft sounds has been referred to as “misophonia”, and thanks to the internet, the sufferers have found each other. I too would routinely search for phrases such as “chewing sounds make me mad” until one day, I found the soft sound sensitivity support groups. We do not have You Tube channels- we discuss white noise choices to block sounds, and the horrors of open offices.
Reading about ASMR makes me wonder is these two experiences are part of some continuum.
92
I experience both misophonia and ASMR, and I’ve always thought of them as related: there is a strong relationship in me between sound and sensation, whether that be rage or tingles. I’m curious if increased study will reveal a link.
9
@Patricia Howe Likewise. I've enjoyed regular ASMR moments as well as persistent misophonia thoughout my life, and reading about chewing sounds (which I despise) as an ASMR trigger made my head explode. And yet, it also made me wonder if the two phenomena are related.
8
@alice @derek z- so it is possible to have both! I had wondered !... that is fascinating and someone should do brain scans on the two of you. Is this an exception, or should it be a rule? 23andMe claims to have a misophonia marker, which of course I have. Do ASMR folks carry this marker?
I have been exploring music, as I figure if some sounds inspire uncontrollable rage in me, it follows some should inspire uncontrollable joy. Although I have always found pleasure in classical music (vocal harmonies especially), I have never got tingles as described here. Arching phrases that lead to chord resolution are the most pleasant- Chopin is a master. If I can’t get tingles from that I don’t think I ever will :-(
3
See Frisson, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson. ASMR is "other reading" on the frisson page; "frisson" is a section of the ASMR page.
Upon reading the first paragraph of this article, I searched for word "frisson" in the article and comments. Nada.
Frisson and ASMR are words that appear to describe the same physiological response/sensation. But triggers for ASMR seem to be much broader in nature than those for frisson (music and emotion are the only two "causes" noted for the latter).
For me, after my wife got me into yoga nearly 20 years ago, I started noticing the frisson sensation in my body at the end of class during the meditation stage.
Googling the feeling, I came across "frisson".
My own frisson/ASMR triggers?
- certain music
- certain emotions (e.g. intense love)
- certain meditations
- moving into a warm room from being out in the cold
- reaching profound understandings
That's just off the top of my head.
Strange that I was almost 40 when I first noticed this sensation. I'm sure I had it as a child for some of the same above triggers, and for certain moments of competitive sports.
Odd that it's a mysterious subject. Seems to be just one of the many sensations of the human body.
One clue, perhaps, why this sensation is not well known is that, for me at least, any anxiety prevents the sensation. And modern life is full of anxiety triggers.
4
Behold, A.S.M.R., what reality used to feel like before we lost touch with it and our own bodies.
The "phenomenon" of people seeking such physical and psychological sensation through videos and online community is perfect for dystopic fiction.
5
ASMR is triggered by real world events, too. People go to videos because they are a reliable source, like, say, when you can’t sleep and don’t want to bother your partner. Also, there are many people in this world who don’t have the opportunity to experience closeness or affection. ASMR video comment sections are filled with people with physical or mental health problems who are grateful for an accessible, safe, and free way to feel better, even when alone. Don’t be so judgy.
1
@Alice
Trust me, Alice. As a professional video producer with 45+ years experience and gobs of awards I can say, unequivocally, snd now more than ever, that video is a popular source of information but hardly one that I would EVER, EVER call reliable.
Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, Second Movement is the only way I can reliably reproduce that feeling. I never understood what I was feeling until I read this article.
2
I have experienced this getting my hair cut at the barbers, listening to certain kinds of music, but also strangely enough from certain breed of salespeople (I assume it's something they may learn to cultivate). Perhaps the feeling is similar to what apes get when being groomed (lice removed) by their peers. And definitely what cats are feeling when they purr. Nice that someone finally named it. Had no clue about the YouTube phenom.
2
I also experience this during certain sales situations and had no idea how to make sense of the experience. “Frisson” is a good way to describe how it feels, though.
When I was learning radio production in college long ago, I became proficient at what is called in sound production, "foley," which is the creation of sounds using various real world items that have nothing to do with the sounds they produce; e.g. the coconuts that simulate a horse clopping along used to comic effect in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. In old time radio drama foley artists used all kinds of odd devices to create the appropriate sounds for the broadcast. Today, movies and tv productions have full time foley artists creating sounds like footfalls, crowds, R2D2 and BB-8, and everything else you hear in a show.
What is ASMR except a weird little online version of relaxation therapy using foley? Haven't all these people ever heard of white noise?
4
@Ira
Ira... Thank you for stripping out all the new age nonsense and commerce opportunities being attributed to ASMR. I never doubted that sound can evoke many emotions and responses. Foley artists are masters at it. But in our culture (and most certainly the culture of the nabobs in California) we need to elevate simple sensations and responses that are not commonly understood to the status of religious phenomena. Then we look for ways to monetize it using this process:
Step 1: Give it a scientific name.
Step 2: Attach ancient non-native cultural beliefs to it.
Step 3: Promote its' possible curative and healing powers.
Step 4: Attach sexual and pseudo-sexual powers to it.
Step 5: Vilify skeptics and other buzz-killers.
Step 6: Put something gooey in a bottle that makes your skin tingle. Give it soothing name.
Step 7. Make and post a video about it.
Step 8. Promote the daylights our of it.
It's phrenology in a bottle.
Give me Daphne & Chloe by Ravel, the sound of a baseball being hit on the sweet spot, the sound of a bass leaping out of the water to catch a may fly, a Lee Konitz solo on All the Things You Are, an infant laughing, a dog sniffing my ear, a freight train in the distance. All of these things make my scalp tingle. I enjoy these moments, these little day-to-day sound experiences. But I DON'T feel the need to build a religion around it. I DON'T need to be an early adapter of nonsense. I just enjoy the tingle. Isn't that the point? Stop the navel-gazing!
2
if ever there were to be scientific study of asmr, i'd like to see the best videos compared to a control group of attractive young women who are comfortable in front of a camera whispering their way through metropolitan traffic reports.
my theory: people tingle when they watch videos of attractive people.
1
I have never seen the videos, but the tingling sensation is quite common among meditators. Spiritualists believe it happens when other consciousnesses are connecting to you.
1
Until today, I thought this feeling was normal and happened to everyone, because it seems impossible that some don't sense this blissful, euphoric, "all is right with the world right now" feeling it. I wish I could unread this story.
2
When I was growing up I had something Like this. I finally told my mother who never heard anything like this. It wasn't always exactly the same. Sometimes was rather pleasant and sometimes annoying. Sometimes I felt as if my body was thickening - whatever that means. Sometimes I felt fuzzy and other times it was different. It never happened when I was in a classroom or doing something important. I never told anyone except my mother although she told me to tell my doctors. He poo pooed it as nothing. That helped my mother but not me so I Just kept it to myself from then on. Sometimes it was as if There was some pressure inside me.
To me honest nothing I say is adequate to describe it. Eventually it disappeared when I went away to college. It was a long time ago. I am now 83 and cannot make it active again. Just some dumb thing I lived with for 20 years ago. It was no problem but I didn't want it to become a problem and it didn't.
This is the first time I read anything near what I experienced.
5
I’m an audio freak. I love a great production value in recording (anything). Nothing makes me feel more joy than beautiful
Music, voice etc. That said, I’m an ASMR virgin. My kids, who Youtube like mad, discovered through the slime phenomenon, all these ASMR videos. We have watched many. I am like the author: I mostly get annoyed. It’s like reverse ASMR. Their splittley voices, their dry hands rubbing, the crackle of plastic wrap or gum chewing is just gross to me. I do love the scratch of a pen on paper, or actually many other wonderful sounds, but these videos are not my thing. Interesting though, and certainly worthy if it works for you.
1
After scrolling through the comments, I'm wondering why I can't have the tingling sensation like everyone else. I'm envious.
I found the young lady irritating. Then I felt mean.
Is there an ASMR for curmudgeons?
12
@RH
I'm with you, though not envious. A quick perusal of those videos made me want to take a shower.
@RH ASMR is very, very personal. Videos by the most popular, well-known creators like Gibi, who make their living on YouTube do absolutely nothing for me. The appeal of minute after minute of tapping, crinkling and brushing is 100% lost on me. But I occasionally stumble across videos that provoke such a strong combination of scalp tingling and sleepiness that it feels like being drugged. These are almost always made by people with low subscriber counts and no expensive lights, cameras or microphones. I've been watching ASMR videos for at least five years now and I never click on videos by the people who have become ASMR "stars" when they show up in my recommendations because I don't see what the big deal is about anything they make.
Can someone please point me in the direction of somewhere I can discuss these specific experiences (from the comments)
“feeling someone else think” &
“am triggered by the concentration of others” (Ta Adam Griffiths)
“Concentration of others”
“only occurs when my mind was focused on someone engaged in an activity...pretty much any activity..It was a reality without dimensions. It was an out-of-body experience” (Ta Joel Solonche)
We can all tingle, shiver & feel mild euphoria from intimate touching, massages, haircuts...
Even better with live music, theatre, performance..(if it’s good)...no surprise there eh?
Food, books, poetry, art, physical exertion walking in forests, jungles, mountains, thunderstorms, beaches, swimming, sports, sex, childbirth, all magical things of course can induce these feelings & possibly from these ASMR videos?
that feel like they are a private & intimate conversation (meh)
If it does good then great.
Meditation can clearly bring this feeling
But another thing entirely...
To be randomly in close proximity, but not touching, another human being...that is silently focussed on a task...& feeling this treacly tingly warm, all encompassing, euphoric comforting sensation
Only met 1 other person that felt this...sensed her watching me setting up & loading cameras...she was gobsmacked when I described her sensations
I was also triggered reading this article, within the 1st couple of paragraphs
3
All the photos in the article are creepy.
I think what those of us who find this stuff creepy are reacting to is the dissociation that is so obvious in people who fall into themselves and talk about it as if they are describing the world outside their heads when they are really just wallowing in fantasy and imagination.
The real physical sensations are a pleasant mystery you should leave alone before you ruin it for yourself.
3
“It’s hard to talk about A.S.M.R. without nuanced language for the things that come near sex.”
No it isn’t. America’s relationship with sex is so poor that pleasant physical sensations, or worse, the term “tingle” must be associated with sexuality. It’s funny to watch people try to sort it all out and get to the bottom of whether this is sexual. It’s not that complicated.
“Who, in our time, can look at a video of a young woman doing anything and not wonder who else is watching — and why?”
Um, lots of people, including other women. You don’t always have to jump to assuming someone is trying to be seductive and someone else is a pervert. There is a serious problem with male gaze in this article, which is disturbing as it’s written by a woman. The entire thing seems to be about rooting out men’s perspective on this whole thing, and elevating that as the ultimate question and answer. Ugh.
“Nevertheless, the gender imbalance of performers seems suspect.”
NO IT DOESN’T! These articles shouldn’t be written by people who don’t get it. Did you ever stop to consider that men don’t “perform” because they see it as feminine and their version of masculinity doesn’t permit it? The attempt to connect this response to a deep seated desire for nurturing femininity is super tenuous and insulting.
9
Exactly
I follow a bunch of ASMR artists on youtube. The best ones are the ones just starting out. Once they develop a huge following, it becomes all about money...their attitude changes and their content becomes more slick with plenty of ads and sponsored content (Blue Apron is a huge supporter for some reason). As with all other mediums, ASMR is driven by profit. For anyone curious, do yourself a favor and bypass the links provided by the NY Times and do a simple search on youtube. Take a look around for yourself. Otherwise you'll end up watching one long whispered commercial.
2
In the 90s Bob Ross’ painting show was broadcast daily on Japanese TV and as an American living in Tokyo I enjoyed letting the show play in the background as I went about my business...The soft-spoken Ross conveyed a unique non-judge mental friendliness which contrasted nicely with his past as a tough Marine...
I used to think Bob Ross could’ve been a great Presidential candidate...
Dunno specifically how he stimulated my brain but he seemed like a sweet Southern man...
@Bob Ross Recalled
Maybe not everyone should be allowed to vote.
Is it a spasm of the pineal gland? Decartes thought the pineal to be "the principle seat of the soul". The only time I feel anything remotely as described; it only lasts a second or two and is right before I sleep. The pineal is associated with sleep and the production of melotin. The only times I felt anything like that while fully conscious has been when surfing and just rode a very good, exciting, adrenaline rush kind of wave. Surfers call it "stoke"; as in a fire stoked, burning and starting to build.
1
What a great piece! Well written, informative and intimate. Nice break from the Mueller and the Wall.
2
I started to watch the video and had to turn it off after a few seconds. It is everything that gives sufferers of Misophonia squirming nightmares.
4
Does that feeling from the favorite part of a favorite piece of music count as ASMR? Or that feeling from a fantastic play that sets your head spinning at so many levels of understanding. Is contemplating President Trump the exact opposite of this feeling?
2
I'm 75 now and this hasn't happened to me in a long, long time. But when I was younger this pleasant tingling in the back of my head was triggered when certain people were talking to me and I would sort of drift off with the tingling and while hearing what they were saying I would kind of hope they would just keep talking to keep the feeling going.
Another time it would happen in the old days when gas station attendants would pump your gas and while that was happening they would wipe/clean your windshield. Again that same tingling would happen while they were cleaning the windshield. I never knew where that feeling was coming from but it was very pleasant. I guess I won't ever experience that again.
1
I once used to get those feelings too before a seizure would come. Turned out to be a brain tumor. I still miss that part of my brain to this day.
2
For those who do not experience the ASMR sensation while watching the YouTube videos, I have a suggestion: close your eyes. That way, all of your attention is concentrated on the sound, and not on the creepy visuals. Works for me!
Does anyone else get tingles from these pictures included in the article? I could stare at them all day; they are delightful!
Being a complete ASMR newb, I watched the videos in this article, and also YouTubed a few more. The video content is definitely sensual: the petting, stroking, caressing the camera and objects. Yes, it is what would amount to be good foreplay, as someone in the article mentioned. The petting, stroking, caressing is what lovers do with each other. The videos are shot with the viewer so close to the performer; visually it mimics how close you’d be for physical touch and intimacy. These videos remind me of lazing about with a new lover, taking my nails down their back, them playing with my long hair, laughing, whispering together, etc. Personally I never got the tingles from the videos. I do think it’s kind of sad that for in order to have the pleasurable sensations of intimate contact, that we’ve gotten to this level of watching videos of strangers. I guess we’ve really lost our way with tech and gadgets.
51
@RG, the lack of human touch or proximity bothers me, to. But read this, from ScienceDily.com, regarding a study on ASMR:
“The study found that those who experience ASMR showed significantly greater reductions in their heart rates when watching ASMR videos (an average decrease of 3.14 beats per minute) compared to those who do not. They also showed significant increases in positive emotions including relaxation and feelings of social connection.”
Social connection? So watching and listing to a sensory-stimulating video excites the same parts of the brain that respond to pleasant interaction with humans? That’s interesting, and a bit alarming.
5
Ah, the internet...think I'll stick to my Facebook cat group, where I can find 45,000 others who are as insanely in love with their cat as I am. Now, that's pleasurable sensation!
1
I see this as just another form of objectification of young women. A simple and pleasurable physiological response is marketed as fetish, performed by young, attractive, non-threatening, available women. Or parts of women — hands with garishly painted nails — which may be even worse. It is not at all surprising that they would attract stalkers.
I’ve felt this tingle when someone whispers in my ear, when a human close by turns the page of book, when my teachers used to write on a (real) blackboard with soft chalk, or when a human hand brushes the back of my neck just so. I’ve also felt it in mediation, and during acupuncture. But I get nothing from these cold, disembodied videos. It bothers me a bit that so many people do.
1
I experience that wonderful, intense tingling feeling in my head when I gently press my forehead against a cat's forehead. Strangely, it doesn't work with all cats. I had a cat many years ago who would stay connected like that for several minutes. I hope it was nice for her, too.
6
I have enjoyed this sensation since I was very little. When I read the headline I was amazed to read that others have the same sensation and there is a whole world of stimulation out there. I listened to the videos all day at work and felt more relaxed than I have in years. One of my two children feel it, too. When she was small she loved when we whispered in her ear or massaged her head. She reports that she finds the videos irritating.
I loved the videos and was reminded of the sensation of euphoria and relaxation. I love the calm it brings to me.
I have never heard of ASMR and found the video personally irritating. However, I was struck by many of the descriptions. I have experienced the sensation of "tingling" that begins in the feet and the hands and can end up as a current of energy that moves through the body. It produces a sense of well-being and a connection with another time and space. It is also known as the Force in the practice that I use, our psycho-physical energy. It's not sexual.
In a peaceful, quiet state one can visualize a transparent luminous sphere that descends from above and ends up in the heart. Then the sphere expands outside the body. If one get "lets go," sensations can appear of many types. They can also appear spontaneously as inspired states of consciousness, as lucid moments. These are things I learned from Silo's message. Thanks to these experiences, I feel there is a profound meaning to life that is lost in the mundane world.
I do think these experiences can be accessible to everyone with the right procedure.
1
I had no idea there was an acronym for it. My husband suffers from ASMR. It’s brilliant. I can get him to agree to almost anything for a back scratch.
5
This all seems very weird. I get hair standing up on my neck when I am afraid, a very basic instinct that all humans, and my dogs, have.
And there is my reaction to nature's beauty. Seeing a sunset as I first saw the incredible view of the Grand Canyon. The physical effect of just seeing enormous redwoods in Muir Woods. Feeling a thunderstorm approach.
The examples given of noises and the creepy whispering by a lady was a feeling that was far from calming and sleep inducing.
Therefore there must be something different that all the others here are feeling. And for commercial or 500 even amateur videos being posted implies there is more known about this, and the performers have a script or knowledge of what triggers all of this.
Touching is calming. Massage is calming. Gentle voices are calming. No surprise there.
6
I remember a female client from years ago who's voice on the phone had something incredibly soothing and relaxing about it. When I mentioned it to other men in the office, they felt the same way. We could never figure out why her voice had that impact, but we all looked forward to talking to her.
4
I meditate on my porch on my mountain top everyday. When I began reading this article I had my news on on the corner of my IPad and an IPod in one ear. So I started the video while reading, something odd started, stopped the news, kept reading, hearing video only, second IPod, eyes closed, and total relaxation. I literally felt all of these sensations in sound in my brain. Plus I am 72 with 40 years of neurological records MRI’s etc. So whatever I just experienced Count Me among the fringe. Amazing.
6
I don't experience ASMR tingles very often--once in a blue moon--but the moment I read about the phenomenon I knew exactly what it was and I remember where I was when I first experienced it: in a college dorm room. I was lying on the floor with an injured back, my roommate was on her bed. We had been chatting a bit, nothing much was going on, and suddenly my brain began to be awash with the most pleasant sensation of well-being, euphoria, whatever you what to call it. This happened several times within a month, in the middle of a semester when I was falling into my first major depression. At that time, I didn't know what depression was or why I was feeling so increasingly awful; I felt guilty and never talked to anyone about my dark thoughts or feelings.
In the forty years since then, I've often wondered if my brain generated those euphoric sensation in response to the very threatening changes going on somewhere inside it--either as a momentary relief from them, a temporary shield of some kind, or as a form of resistance--my brain taking the situation into its own hands, so to speak, and putting up a fight.
The "tingles" are the antithesis of severe depression. Scientists might discover something useful about how to treat that illness by studying what seemed to be one of my body's natural defense mechanisms against it.
12
I also have experienced this sensation ever since I was a kid. For me the biggest trigger is when someone would ask to borrow something of mine. When I was a kid, if someone loaned a pen from me, the sensation would immediately set in. It's very similar to the pleasure of having one's scalp massaged or hair played with. It's so wonderful that the internet has allowed us to talk about this shared experience although unfortunately videos don't trigger anything for me. I definitely think it's something related to altruism and peace. Perhaps the body's way of getting us to all play nice with one another. Fascinating topic.
11
I watched some of the videos, and they did not produce an ASMR reaction in me -- I've never heard that term, but I have experienced that "tingly" sensation from some things my whole life.
However, what they DID DO is make me incredibly sleepy. I had to struggle not to fall face first onto my keyboard!!! I could hardly keep my eyelids open!
No idea why this is. A typical ASMR reaction, when I do have it, does not make me sleepy at all.
5
This is the best one.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoNWLyNbFaY
1
@Mandeep, eek! I thought that was horribly irritating.
I've had this for as long as I can remember, but somehow never thought to discuss it with others, either because maybe it was something everyone had, or maybe because I was the only one, I'm not sure. But I was happy to discover a few years ago that the Internet had come up with a name for it. I'd always called it "brain fuzzies" myself, but really it feels like there's a low-pressure clamp on my head, followed by tingling up and down my scalp.
Top triggers for me are when someone allows others to see something private (like sketching in a café) or shows off something they're proud of (could be as simple as a coworker explaining how an Excel formula they wrote works). The shared intimacy is important, and though I find it pleasurable it can almost get a bit annoying if it goes on more than a minute or two, so I never really considered trying to induce it using videos.
2
@Maxwell Cohen...
In the Nineties I experienced an entire decade of what I began to refer to as S.E.E's... or Somatic Energy Experiences.
This energy presentation/experience was simultaneously sensation and consciousness manifesting in differing parts of my body.
The Esoteric Tradtion is largely based on understanding and interpreting and navigating by way of "Subtle Energies."
But if you turn to a Western psychiatrist or a psychologist for help with such empirical experience you will simply be told that you are Delusional... and most likely require medication.
And if that doesn't fix it... well, that is simply your fault too.
Last yr, when I accidentallyI watched an A.SM.R video..I did not have a clue what it was about, so later I googled it to learn more about it . The one I watched was someone writing w a straight dip pen and ink. The pen makes a scratching sound and brought back memories of Catholic Elementary School in NYC in the 1950's. I watched a few more videos and the ones watched brought me into the present moment like a meditation because I was focused totally on the listening. Reminded me to listen to the natural sounds that I hear and make around the house...like now to the gentle tapping of the computer keys on my laptop. So don't have to rely on you tube but can just experience our own A.S.M.R I in our daily life.
7
Reading this article, I realized that I've been experiencing and enjoying A.S.M.R. from M.U.S.I.C. since the age of seven. Now I'll go back to the Leon Russell concert from the 70's playing on my phone. Ahhhhh.
9
@Bo. Amen. Two words: Chris. Cornell.
Mind tricks are as old as the species. Almost anyone conjure up a mindset that brings the autonomous nervous system and a feedback loop into play. It's nothing new but my personal view is it shouldn't be indulged in very often.
3
@R. Zeyen
In my opinion if you aren't hurting anyone, indulge all you want and don't listen to internet weirdos who think pleasure is inherently wrong.
1
When this happens to me (randomly) it is a thrill. Not interested in inducing it by staring at videos, the surprise is part of the enjoyment. Glad to know I'm not alone.
5
I have never experienced this brain-tingle phenomenon although I do get a full sensation of joy sometimes (comparable to endorphins after exercise, and I remember it being more frequent when I was under 25). I would be very curious to see a study that compares people who experience the ASMR euphoria with people like me who find the videos either creepy or pointless. What is the difference in our brain chemistry and why?
1
Many don’t realize that our Cerobrospinal fluid moves in a rhythm, slow waves between coccyx to top of the brain.
5
@Antonioe
Except that the cord doesn't extend into the coccyx. Oh well.
3
@Tom Powell, New Age anatomy. The other Universal Truth is that everyone’s adrenals are probably exhausted. And so on.
I prefer to relax with a gin and tonic. :-)
16
The commercialization of human feelings continues. How much further will this progress? Is authentic human experience going to become a luxury good?
4
@Art Sorenson
You bring up deep philosophical issues. Let's begin with "how does one define authentic human experience?"
2
I don’t think I’ve ever experienced the “brain tingle” but I meditate quite a bit and at some point began to experience euphoria on and off while I did. I have a few techniques. First is to wait for thoughts. Not to clear my head of thoughts, but to wait to see what arrives. For whatever reason, this invariably strikes me as hilarious, and I can laugh for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, sometimes until my face hurts. If I am also bothered by something, I will laugh with one breath and weep with the next. When I get into a good rhythm of meditation, I will experience the euphoria regularly through the day for weeks or months at a time.
The other triggers for me are breathing in a matter that extends certain muscles in my stomach; and imagining that I am breathing through my third eye. Generally then I don’t laugh, but I feel a profound sense of relaxation and connectedness that is comparable to taking OxyContin (which I did after a surgery).
After silent retreats, I usually find basic sensations, like touching a doorknob or hearing a car honk, to be so beautiful that I am brought to tears.
I am an atheist. Not agnostic, not mystic, not spiritual. Atheist. I believe these effects are neurological, and that the breathing probably triggers my parasympathetic nervous system. But nevertheless, it is lovely.
9
I have experienced ASMR my entire life, in moments that catch me delightfully by surprise every time. I love that there is language to describe this, and am fascinated that people are figuring out how to induce these sensations. The cross-connections remind me of synesthesia, which I also experience, and I wonder if these capacities are related.
5
Well, the luminescent light in the forehead of the cerebrum is usually associated with god-head experiences.
These kind of oceanic illuminations occur usually not at random.
I had them as a child before I feel to sleep.
Later when I was baptised at ten years old I saw the light before my forehead moving always in front for about 3-4 months.
Even later at I entered Bhuddist meditation training and went over 8 months steadily illuminated in the forehead and in front of my sensorium. Now it is usually available in the hypnogogic state of waking from sleep.
I doubt I will look at the videos; have to meditate on it.
Relationships with material objects are fraught with voodoo.
Look at the Catholic church.
2
@Discernie
Why, pray, flagellate oneself by doing the latter appallingly awful task >:) ?
1
I get a really soothing, drowsy feeling around my eyes all of a sudden. I relate to some of the ASMR triggers, but not all. And it entirely depends on the person doing the action. Just getting an eye exam doesn't do it. Getting one from someone who is soothing in this very specific way might, though.
2
There is another indefinable set of sensations that science struggles to define: the migraine aura. The onset of a migraine can cause light flashes or strange patterns, smells, and many other sensations that vary by the migraine patient. I don't think any of them are pleasurable, and I'm sure there are no you tube channels for them! They do seem to tie in with this phenomenon in the sense of complex neurological activation leading to highly idiosyncratic sensations.
8
This is what I call 'the presence of God', when suddenly I feel surrounded by inexhaustible love, of not-aloneness, that gentle hand on my shoulder of a dear and treasured friend.
I try to pause, smile, and greet my friend happily - "thank you for being here with me!", wrapping myself momentarily in that feeling of presence, affirmation and love that sparkles, spreads and envelopes my head, spine, arms, legs. The voice of Love, speaking my name.
I am loved, with a perfect uncomplicated undefiled clean complete love, I am not alone! My friend is here with me!
Often it occurs right before I go to sleep, sometimes in the midst of an ethical or personal dilemma, often when I am traveling.
I am no religious extremist, but as an active participant in the Christian Left, I strongly believe in God's presence in my daily life as a loving affirming friend, here with me at all times, but only sometimes am I quiet enough to actively welcome and greet it.
I must be open to this presence, I must open that window and greet my friend with joy and welcome - that is what makes the presence more than just a 'brain tingle'.
That is what I treasure.
11
@organic farmer --Same here. Pretty much exact same. Usually happens during prayer or just generally focusing on (what I describe as) God's presence.
This is the first I'm learning about A.S.M.R. It appears to me to be the perfect tool for those who wish to calm their minds through meditation, but find they can't focus long enough to do so. Guided meditation tapes create a similar calm, but usually require one to imagine their own visuals.
The more one experiences meditative calm, the quicker they can recall it and put themselves in that state. This ability is an excellent tool for every human to have among their coping skills.
The science of meditation shows that the practice of meditation has a cumulative effect. Every time you meditate, you build on all the other times. No effort is lost.
Whether one gets the brain rush down the spine or not, I think it sounds wonderful! Great for people struggling with ADHD, anxiety-disorder, depression and addiction, especially if they can't relate to classic meditation techniques.
6
My trigger has always been the sound of a broom being swept, but I have experienced the same sensation from other sounds too. I was totally surprised to find that there are numerous sweeping videos online. It is fascinating how we still have so much to learn about our bodies.
7
I’ve experienced this since I was a young child- earliest memories of it are 4 or 5 years old, just listening to people whisper. People have been listening to “tingle” inducing videos way before 2009—some of the earliest people who did this on youtube don’t any more. Whispering Voice, Danish Vlog, and Lita’s massage videos, etc. Sitting in my dorm room on the east coast while working on calculus problem sets, I would listen to a nice man from the UK describe his walks in the woods and what he liked to cook, his cats, simply because it was relaxing and made my scalp tingle in a nice way. It is not arousing at all. It’s the same thing as responding to nails on a chalkboard, except that it’s pleasant, not unpleasant. We describe sensations in response to sound or other non-touch stimuli like “skin crawling,” shuddering, ear-splitting, or getting goosebumps all the time. So why is this subject to scrutiny? Just because it’s not as common? Because women do it?
6
I've experienced this since being a young child and still vividly remember watching a water drop dry in the sun at 3 or 4 years old and having the feeling wash over. Even reading the article triggers it somewhat. A great read, I always wondered what caused the sensation
I've found a real easy way to experience ASMR is to use one of those wire head massagers found at a dollar store. Enjoy!!
3
I've always gotten this feeling and had assumed it was kind of universal. I still think it may be, but I think its naming and the weird YouTube sensation has served to make it seem stranger and more exceptional than it is.
For me, it's a visceral feeling of beauty or the shock of recognition. I sometimes get it when listening to really beautiful music, or when doing research and discovering a new connection, document, finding, etc. Starts at the top of my head, goes through my body, makes me shiver. It's almost like the nails on a chalkboard feeling, except not awful. It boggles my mind that people would listen to sounds of people chewing to reproduce this.
9
@MikeBoy
Listen to R. Vaugh Williams' The Lark Ascending. That will always put the hairs on your neck standing and a very intense almost tear inducing emotion for most people.
I've experienced this phenomenon for more than 60 years. The trigger is usually when someone right in front of me is deep in concentration -- from a teacher trying to locate a spot on a map when I was 12 to a financial advisor poring over an investments statement a few years ago.
5
Tibetian meditators would label this sensation as "Bliss". Experienced meditators can produce this feeling using only the mind, absent sensory stimulation--"Bliss on Tap".
Much of the Hindu tradition labels the energy as "Kundalini" and there is a rich tradition of exploration. "Kundalini" is an ancient Sanskrit word that literally means "coiled snake." In early Eastern religion (long before Buddhism and Hinduism) it was believed that each individual possessed a divine energy at the base of the spine. This energy was thought to be the sacred energy of creation.
9
I get this feeling when I hear tremendously beautiful music -- Bernstein's "Tonight, Tonight," for example.
4
This sounds like the pink cloud addicts some times experience when detoxed. A restoration of a natural/biological dopamine rush?
Also feelings of tranquility touched off by a scent from long ago, a person's calming voice, a landscape or marine scene, holding a baby....
In short, sensory experiences (imagined or real) that trigger feelings of well-being.
11
I've had similar experiences while doing spiritual practices of inquiry with someone, or me, who is experiencing what we called essence. I haven't heard goose-bumps mentioned, but can be there. Also, as a kid, when my dad drew pictures for me. Now, in retirement, I'm an artist and have experienced similar things.
I guess I'm trying to say that the experience is not just physical or emotional. I think those are the manifestations of a deep realization of who and what we are. A fullness that can bring tears to our eyes and is certainly in our hearts.
7
That's an excellent insight RAH.
I always got this feeling when I was younger in school and my teachers would help me with my coursework. Especially when my math teacher took the pencil from me and demonstrated how to complete a problem. She was very helpful and it was probably my best year in math. I believe it's just an intense experience of intimacy. Intimacy doesn't have to be sexual as this writer experienced. Everybody is different and some people can't handle intimacy. Examples include when men experience a moment of closeness and some says stop being gay or no homo. Some people love massages, others can't stand being touched by a stranger. Everybody is different. But ASMR has brought together millions of people who have experienced this feeling of intimacy in normal situations their whole lives, but couldn't describe it or didn't want to so people would call them weird. Imagine if as a child I tried to explain to my teacher how it made me feel when she took time to give me extra attention and ensure that I was learning the problem. So I would just thank her for her help, and appreciated the care she took as a teacher.
12
Exactly my experience. Always when someone is explaining something to me in a relaxing way.
6
@Matthew That's funny because I hate ASMR - it makes me feel intensely uncomfortable - and I associate that same feeling with having someone take the pencil from my hand and show me how do do a math problem. That, and hearing someone read poetry out loud, especially if it's poetry they love and they read it with expression.
This is fascinating -- none of the videos give me that ASMR feeling, but I recognize the sensation. For me, it only happens when I enter into my favorite places -- usually big majestic spaces. It only lasts for the first few seconds and I can't explain it -- but it is real. Love the attempt to give it a name...
10
Definitely someone playing with my hair, reading my palm, or unexpected (but definitely welcome!) massage elicits that response in me. I got the same response when I was a child when my mom and I would be reading in bed together. And now tears in my eyes just typing that last sentence.
20
I'm in my 40s and had wondered for a very long time what the sensation was but had given up asking people when I was younger based on the confused responses I always got. I finally heard it described in a short segment on This American Life. By this point the YouTube videos were already exploding but I really haven't had much success getting ASMR from watching those. As this article suggests it seems like the explosion in popularity is less about pure ASMR sensations and more about curiosity and the calming effect the videos appear to have on those who don't experience the tingles.
I feel like most of the comments about the weirdness of the videos says more about the odd YouTube world that made the videos popular than ASMR. My triggers are far more visual and processed-based than fingernail clicks and one-on-one role-plays. My most consistent triggers come from watching people trying to figure things out (e.g. looking at a map) in very banal day-to-day interactions. (Perhaps that's still creepy to some people?) At this point the popularity of the videos seems only loosely correlated with their actual ability to trigger ASMR responses.
7
@Gareth
Mine also are not intimacy based but watching people trace a finger or pencil on a map, doodle with pencil scratching on paper, turn pages in a book or magazine, etc.
2
I’ve felt this three times in my long life. The first time when I realized I was in love with my boyfriend. Another when hugging my husband. And the final time when looking at my newborn daughter. Very intense pleasurable feelings but definitely not orgasm. My guess is that love releases oxytocin. Just remembering these incidents is a pleasure.
Gentle massage and being stroked also causes a pleasurable but not a similar sensation.
4
Isn't this also known simply as a frisson?
16
@Brent Beebe Frissom includes sensations focused on the body's hormone adrenaline whereas ASMR focused on something simliar to the body's hormone dopamine
The old PBS series "Principles of Accounting" always did it for me. It was "The Joy of Painting" (Bob Ross) on steroids.
4
@Richard Schumacher
Not me. It was Don Laubs, "Basic Techniques in Neocolporophy" that always changed me!
1
How about a self induced tingle?
I don't need an A.S.M.R. trigger, mine are self-induced. I've always been able to do this, it's like a muscle that is flexed to induce the tingles, and also like a muscle, it does get tired so I cannot sit there and spam that flex to tingle full time. I do have these episodes randomly with no trigger what so ever, but as a child I stumbled upon that I could self induce. I've always wondered if everyone could do this but it was such an odd thing that no one ever spoke about, so I did the same, kept it to myself. Then came the internet and a few years ago, I googled and found info on A.S.M.R. and on trigger videos, which I don't find helpful because I don't need the trigger, but which I also support because, this world needs good feelings. But news articles like this in the past few years have given license and legitimacy to what ever this is that I have always had within me and allowed me to enjoy the sensation and let it happen.
4
@C. I wonder if you can also dissociate when you're uncomfortable/in pain? I've always been able to breathe in and put myself in a forest or at a beach during medical procedures. No, the dentist isn't drilling that sore tooth, it doesn't hurt like the dickens, I'm really on that path in the pine forest walking on a thick layer of golden pine needles. It's a handy coping mechanism.
2
@C.
What do you think about or what part of you body do you focus on to self-induce the tingle? I can sometimes do it if I focus on trying to hear/feel the blood pulse through my inner ears with my heartbeat. But only if there are no other loud distractions or people talking to me.
@Jo M
I’ve never tried to use this for pain but if in the future I’m in a situation with sustained pain, I will try it.
1
Tampopo
Like Bob Ross, this pre-ASMR 1985 cult hit must have been (is) full of triggers, maybe enhancing its lure.
2
There is actually recent hard science on this subject utilizing Magnetic Resonant Imaging that adds dramatically to the questions being addressed beyond the experience of the author or his contacts:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6209833/
Methods: An fMRI-based methodology was employed to examine the brain activation of subjects prescreened for ASMR-receptivity (n=10) as they watched ASMR videos and identified specific moments of relaxation and tingling.
Results: Subjects who experienced ASMR showed significant activation in regions associated with both reward (NAcc) and emotional arousal (dACC and Insula/IFG). Brain activation during ASMR showed similarities to patterns previously observed in musical frisson as well as affiliative behaviors.
Conclusion: This is the first study to measure the activation of various brain regions during ASMR and these results may help to reveal the mechanistic underpinnings of this sensation.
10
I discovered ASMR two years ago, and it has been a godsend for anxiety and insomnia. Rather than taking a pill, I can watch a YouTube video, and it helps me achieve a meditative state--and to rest. One of the most encouraging aspects of the ASMR community is that it is women--like Maria Gentle Whispering or WhispersRed's Emma that have dealt with anxiety and PTSD themselves, and create content to help others.
3
This is all very strange. Yes, I’ve had moments of induced euphoria, but like others it was from works of art, or my own creativity or due to some context of memory/experience. I find these videos of tapping and whispering and what not to be more of an irritant than source of tranquility or orgiastic brain activity.
3
The described sensation sounds like nadam to me. Nadam is an ancient Hindu word that refers to the pleasant tingling noise within the brain ( which I 'm experiencing right now) that can reveal itself silence, in meditation, in periods of calm, in work that is creative or absorbing, in quiet pleasure or fulfillment. Some hear it as tingling; some as crickets; some as an interior musical connection to the universe... "celestial bells." In any case, one should welcome this silent voiceless gong.
7
Here's how it became a sensation: people fell for the latest pseudo-religious fantasy-land Thing That Will Make It All Better.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, we have an Ebola Zaire outbreak nearly out of control. It's a 90% fatality-rate kinda thing; and you die by liquefying and bleeding out.
How about a mag article on that? Shall we put away childish things...or just amuse ourselves to death with at best trivialities?
@Doug Tarnopol can we do both? It's reading about the awful things happening (things I don't have any control over nor can I personally impact them) that is a huge cause of my anxiety. I am anxious because I choose to keep up to date on current events. It would be even better if I exercised hard but even with that there's residual worry.
It's not amusement it's coping sir! And it doesn't make it all better but it makes it a little easier to bear. Now I'm off to read about Trumps latest folly. Or worse yet, climate change and the legions of deniers. tap tap tap...
5
@Doug Tarnopol
How is all that help with Ebola going there in Rhode Island?
2
There's a lot of charlatans and glommers in the ASMR world noawadays. The reason to me seems to be this attempt to stand out on the internet.
I'm a musician and recordist who does experience ASMR, so I'm not downplaying the sensation.
I hate to say it, but most of these recordings are just posturing and more about the fetishization of an object and the self absorbed intention of the presenter.
I would say the ASMR community has been commodified, but I think the more accurate word would be gentrified. The suburbs are gentrifying everything.
1
“Sitting alone in front of a screen, nothing seems that weird anymore.”
Including monetizing EVERYTHING.
3
Ain't nuthin like a good dose of sympathetic and parasympathetic nerve discharges from the hippocampal and limbic areas, combined with a simultaneous flood of endorphins released by cerebral connections.
Do some MRI's while these people are experiencing these symptoms and see what areas light up.
I bet they are deeply situated near the hippocampal, limbic, and amygdala regions, and are closely connected with the tracts that produce the phenomenon of horripilation (hair standing on end on the trunk, arms, and legs).
13
Actually it appears to be distinct:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6010208/
This topic resonates from head to toe. When I was a small boy my mother would have me lie on my side on the kitchen counter in front of a window through which the sun streamed warm and bright. She’d stroke my head as she gently cleaned my ears. I’d close my eyes and drift into the most sublime, tingly feelings. The experience remains utterly ineffable for its myriad sensory and emotional depths.
4
When I was a boy living with my parents and brother in a Bronx apartment, the TV repair guy would have to be called to fix the television or the plumber would come to fix a leaking faucet. I would watch them at work so intently that a warm tingling sensation would flood the top of my head and the back of my neck. I would lose all sense of space and time. It was a reality without dimensions. It was an out-of-body experience while still in my body. As soon as the TV guy was done replacing the tubes or the plumber finished repairing the U-joint under the kitchen sink, the tingling ceased, and I was dropped back into the reality of three dimensions. I began to notice a pattern. The warm tingling -- and highly pleasurable sensation -- accompanied concentration on a single task. It occurred only when my mind was focused on someone engaged in an activity, pretty much any activity. It was never induced by any sort of sound, not even by music. In fact, sounds tended to break the spell.
As I got older (I am now 72), the tingle got less and less frequent. I tried to induce it because it was so pleasurable. I can only liken it to what Zen monks must experience during deep clear-mind meditation, a liquid electric hum. (Om?) Interestingly, I am beginning to tingle as I'm writing this comment. After all, writing does indeed require concentration on as single task.
I'm no neuroscientist, but I am convinced that the seat of the tingle is the reptilian part of the brain. Any thoughts?
8
@Joel Solonche Completely guessing, but my guess is the mammal brain, as it appears to be associated with intimacy and gentle attention. Reptiles do not have the brain machinery for intimacy.
My 11 year old daughter uses the word ASMR as a synonym for "satisfying", which really surprised me the first time I heard it. She watches youtube videos of people poking slime and describes this as ASMR. I've asked her if she feels any physical sensation when she watches these videos, and she says no. For her and her friends ASMR means "satisfying" in a more general way.
3
Please. We used to call this a "rush". No new names required.
Thank you.
9
@Slann
A "rush" is an excited state. This phenomenon is described as relaxing and pleasant. I think it needs a new name from what I understand. I've felt rushes, plenty. Good and bad. They are not terribly pleasurable. I believe I have felt this ASMR, or maybe a low intensity version of it, compared to what is described here. I would give it a different name based on my experiences.
Not every pleasant sensation is sexual. Amateurs assigning pseudoscientific acronyms to a sensation is counter productive. It is obviously a electro chemical response in the brain, triggered by different stimuli in different people. Current science has barely figured out the nature of the brain, so let’s not get too excited about research being diverted into the latest trendy thing on Facebook.
I would rather the research money goes to unfolding the mystery of consciousness and self awareness.
How about figuring out why people are caught in the loop of depression, or why some people are willfully ignorant and wish to hurt other people?
3
@Paulie
I'd revisit the article. This ASMR is associated with euphoria (arguably the opposite of depression), and social bonding ("affiliative behavior"). So understanding ASMR may hold keys to precisely your stated areas of concern.
If you want to experience this, all you have to keep your head level and look up, fixing your eyes on some point above you. You will immediately feel more relaxed in a "wave" like sensation that starts in the forehead and moves over the scalp to the neck. This is the technique the is used for self hypnosis.
I’m only curious why all these commenters may have had difficulty describing tingling sensations from being stroked or hearing a soothing voice. I’ve gotten these feelings my whole life and I don’t think it’s significant, mysterious, or unique. It’s part the central nervous system and all this “sudden” interest is just about making money from tingly saps.
10
@Chris McClure
That's how it looks to me, too.
This article frustrated me. Keiles addresses all the key points, but the feminist analysis feels forced. It’s also intellectually lazy and dishonest: the gender imbalance is not as extreme as she describes—the first wave of content creators included several well-known men—and attractive male personalities are subject to similar objectifying and intrusive comments. At the same time, Keiles understates the kindness of the the ‘community.’ It’s a rare exception to YouTube’s otherwise toxic environment.
Some stray observations:
I’ve never heard anyone characterize the emotional response as a sense of “gratitude”;
The researcher might find ASMR content soothing, but I don’t think he experiences it, and I‘d wager that, at this point, most subscribers don’t, either;
No disrespect to Gaby, whose accomplishment at such a young age is impressive, but someone like Maria (Gentle Whispering ASMR) would have been more mature and articulate;
“Hot older sister”?
4
Count me as a skeptic. With a lack of any actual evidence of ASMR, the most likely explanation for any sensation is that it's a YouTube-created phenomenon with no actual basis in reality. It's kind of like that video where someone says there's a leprechaun in a tree, so people start staring at the tree trying to see a leprechaun. Lo and behold, some people claim to see a leprechaun and are absolutely adamant that it's there. (This is a real video.) It's like how people see a face on Mars and insist it's real, despite proof that it's an artifact of facial recognition patterns, suggestibility, and confirmation bias.
It's probably most similar to the phenomenon where after learning a new word, you seem to hear it everywhere. The word has always been around, but you didn't pay attention to it without knowing what it meant; nobody's saying it any more frequently than usual, but people are convinced that their new awareness is actually a change in their environment.
In this case, it seems like people are giving a name to a feeling of pleasure, then exaggerating or explaining with clumsy metaphors. When it seems like only some people feel it, there's a motivation to be one of those "special" people. So you latch on to whatever is most similar to the explanations, call it ASMR, and fancy yourself special.
Until there's solid, expansive evidence of this feeling that took 250,000 years to name for some reason, we should consider ASMR the same way we consider osteopathy.
2
@Andrew Roberts I feel bad for you, Andrew, because you clearly can't experience this. That's all.
I think there's a genetic component because my sister, both her children, both my children and I can all experience it. My husband is like you. Sad.
3
@Andrew Roberts
I agree skepticism is warranted. As anything new gains steam, a dash of disbelief discourages haste, carelessness, fraud, and the tyranny of the majority. Furthermore, I believe objectivity enhances experience, education, investigation, and engagement. Honest, open debate is––or, perhaps more accurately anymore, was––a proud hallmark of our society.
In fact, I'd say we need more skepticism these days, particularly among those convinced that a Soros and Bilderberg-funded deep state plots to replace self-made trillionaire and stable genius President Trump with Chelsea Manning, while FEMA aids a globalist cabal masquerading as the UN in gathering Islamists to invade, confiscate all guns (including Red Ryders and SuperSoakers), impose vegan homosexuality, outlaw gendered pronouns, and replace every motor vehicle with a fixed-gear bicycle.
My experience, however, is that few things undermine or devalue otherwise constructive skepticism more than certainty, belittlement, and hubris. I see all in this comment. That is, of course, solely my own opinion, which admittedly may be sorely misguided. Regardless, I share it here and in this manner to 1) hopefully elicit a grin or chuckle, and 2) encourage a tad more tolerance and respect, especially regarding things nobody fully understands. It's hard to go wrong with humility and humor, particularly when critiquing/disagreeing.
There's my two cents . . . maybe three. Take it for what it's worth, and have a tingly day!
I experience this as a wave of tingling that lasts a few seconds at most, but as you become aware of it you can consciously extend it. Then it can be consciously initiated with practice. I also associate it with the perceived sound of blood flow in my ears. The author and sexuality teacher Margot Anand calls it 'the streaming reflex'. In my experience it also has a shiver-like component, but much more finely grained. I suspect a physiological description will emerge quickly as curious researchers start on the fMRI and other techniques.
4
So there is a name for that sensation. I used to have it more often when I was in Divinity School and thought of it as lighting up the chakras of the spine (not totally clear what they are) and a result of meditation. I have it less often now, decades later. News to me that there is a YouTube world dedicated to triggering the response.
1
Cant say I felt the -'gasm' but very engaging.
I got a strong sense of 'projection' (As if I were connected intimately with the model.) The umbrella like a boundary with different feelings when she was outside and sometime inside.
A blend of calm, fear and safe feelings too. Maybe fear of letting go of control... allowing / trusting in the process.
Much more engaging than I was expecting interesting; thanks for the article.
2
I have been having this sensation since before I can remember--I know I had it as a small child. It was and still is triggered by completely non-sexual experiences: watching my mother draw, watching Betty Lou as she made crafts on her show, the Magic Window (any Iowans out there?), watching Bob Ross for sure, watching a certain clerk at my grocery store as she carefully and meticulously fronts shelves.
I find it regrettable and frustrating that this article was written by someone who does not have this sensation. People who have it will tell you 100% that it is not sexual in any way, but people who don't, including the researcher in the article, will try to find all sorts of goofy explanantions to turn it sexual. I have never, not once, experienced it during any sort of sexual activity. It is wholly different from orgasm.
My sister has this, as do both of my children. My husband doesn't, can't understand it, and I feel sorry for him. It really is a singular, wonderful sensation.
17
@Valerie yes it is too bad that the author has not experienced it. I feel the tone of the article might have been different if she had.
5
@Valerie
You are 100% correct.
It is the opposite of sexual pleasure. There is no arousal. There is no climax. It has nothing to do with the body.
It is a psychic union. If you want, you can say the nervous system is copulating with the cosmos.
1
The cold millipede that the writer felt - is how I would describe the other "tingle" I get when I have a sudden burst of anger in response to something said or done, probably something that my brain automatically perceived as threatening. As in, my hackles rise., the way the hair on the back of my dog's neck rises when he sees prey. I've learned over time, to take it as a warning- a to chill and figure out what's happening.
It is possible that the same physical trill could be part of a reaction to both pleasurable and frightening inputs.
30
@cheryl
I have also observed tingling on the top of my head when I acknowledge anger to myself. Only when I learned to not be afraid of expressing anger did I get this feeling. While I’m telling someone that something they did made me angry, I will feel the tingle. On those occasions people seem to hear me better than if I ranted or raved. I also find that having expressed myself that way, I do not harbor the anger. It seems to dissipate. I think maybe it’s related to the expression “to blow one’s stack” or to cartoons that picture anger as steam emanating from the top of the head. Physical sensations definitely accompany our emotions.
5
@Martha L. Miller
Yes. What came up for me is that, when I've had that tingling in my brain (I am 70 years old and have experienced it occasionally in the past decade), I've become fearful that it was a warning of a stroke. I've had it when emotionally discussing an upsetting topic with good friends. My reaction has always been to back off, settle down, let go of it...
2
Self seving indulgence. I think there's more to life.
2
@Wang An Shih Have you considered that your comment is a self serving indulgence?
1
God gave us five senses and a body connected to a mind. Over the millennia there have been many ways explored to seek bliss through these channels. Reading about religion, philosophy or art reveals how various people have found it. Some people are more sensitive to these connections than others, or more sensitive to certain stimuli. I can tell you from my own experience that the best way to find this kind of bliss is to disengage from electronic media.
6
This happened to me as a kid. Frequently it was with cashiers at the grocery store, watching them write on the backs of checks and such. Wires cross and you’re eyes lock and then your gaze becomes a conduit for a stroking pleasure. I recently tried to describe this phenomenon so that I could talk about it. Now I can talk about it. Not a bad start to a gloomy Friday.
10
I have the exact opposite. I noticed it when I was a young boy sitting with my father as he was drinking coffee and the sound of him sipping and swallowing made my skin crawl.
If you wanted to kill me all you’d need to do was phone me from the bathtub while eating a peanut butter sandwich and I’d just die, blam! Just like that, dead.
2
Misophonia!
1
@Lora yeah that's what I have, I didn't realize it was a thing til recently, my wife has lately started sucking ice cubes, I told her if she starts chewing them I'm out of here.
@R. Koreman
I'm on your team.
Started watching these videos out of curiosity, and when one came on where a woman ate crunchy macarons close to the microphone I realized I was not the target audience, to say the least, but I survived the onslaught.
What in the name of all that is decent is pleasurable about listening to SOMEONE CHEW?!?
10
I enjoy ASMR on youtube many nights in bed. It relaxes me esp. when I'm feeling anxious. If my mind is racing and I feel I can't calm my mind I load a video and force myself to pay attention to the sounds, whether it's a voice or some sound being made. If I'm particularly stressed I'll gently stroke my own forehead or scalp or tap on my forearm. I normally don't have to watch, just listen and I feel tranquil and can fall asleep.
Our society is so weird about assigning any physical touch to sex, maybe women tend to like ASMR because we don't have to 'perform' we can just enjoy gentle sensations and there's no expectation of sex. I grew up giving massages to my father and brothers so the idea that massage could lead to sex is totally repulsive to me. Ick ick ICK.
I color a good friend's hair for her-she's a single woman who doesn't currently have a romantic partner. The last time I colored her hair I took a few minutes and massaged her scalp neck and shoulders and she enjoyed it a lot. To me touch doesn't have to be sexual but I know that's not the norm in American culture. It's sad that we're looking at ASMR through the lens of sex, it's completely unrelated in my mind. But then again I remember being in kindergarten and feeling tingles at story/nap hour when a classmate would brush my hair and braid it. I guess I knew ASMR way back when too. Call ASMR weird, strange or stupid but to me it's very relaxing and I'm really happy I discovered it.
5
I've felt this tingling all my life, but only when looking at pictures of the universe, such as those from the Hubbell telescope. I've always thought it was the feeling of awe, because along with the tingling comes an almost overwhelming feeling of happiness and connection.
6
I'll stick with listening to the rain.
8
So......someone feels an odd sensation, writes about it and then it's "real"?
I'm not sure what's more absurd....that this is now taken seriously or that, having discovered that there is no scientific literature on a vague sensation (shocking!), that someone decides to investigate it.
This isn't science. it's simply the latest woo-woo.
1
I’m sixty and have gotten intense feelings down my back and spine, like this my whole life especially triggered by really beautiful harmonious music. Chopin and Bach in particular. Later when I’d hear some parts of Joni Mitchell music.
Had a Milder pleasurable experience with her Gibi’s video.
Reminds me quite a lot of increased awareness I’d experience when sitting in a really quiet place hearing gentle rustles of nature.
Really listening well would help hear unusual noises from intruders too.
I always thought though that experiencing that beauty from music was a reason for becoming embodied- a much more woo-woo idea of course- But for me accurate as I was an abused child without much pleasure in life in early days.
No doubt this correlates too the “placebo effect”.
Thank you for posting
7
I found this article interesting and somewhat fascinating, I must say that I have never experienced ASMR. What I have experienced and never read about is Exploding Head Syndrome. It's where I suddenly, upon falling asleep suddenly hear a loud explosive sound and immediately wake up. Now, in my 76th year, I still occasionally experience the explosive sounds. I bring this up because I have never read any studies or articles about Exploding Head Syndrome. I am sure there are many others who have had this experience and would appreciate an article regarding this sensation.
Strange and interesting. Seems related to some of the pleasurable aspects of meditation.
2
I have this same feeling when I meditate, when I go deep into myself. My body seems to vibrate in gratitude.
1
I had this feeling after a particularly satisfying birthday a few years ago. My daughter sent flowers, my son and grandsons called and my husband took me to dinner. I was happy in a way I had never experienced before--as described in this article.
An experience of well-being and feeling loved brought on the sensation of euphoria described here in my brain that consumed my entire body.
I still feel loved by my family on my birthday (and other occasions) but have never again experienced that special "brain-orgasm."
Waiting and not giving up . . .
3
I remember trying to describe this sensation to friends for years before ASMR became a widely recognized phenomenon. And it was so difficult to make it not sound creepy. To say I get a tingly sensation in my scalp and feel very relaxed when, say, my teachers in school would whisper directions to nearby students while we were taking an exam or the librarian spoke softly during checkout while opening and closing all those crinkly plastic-wrapped books (a library role play is one of my top ASMR videos).
I’m not sure if it has gotten easier to describe, but as a gay man who watches mostly female ASMRtists, I can assure sex is the last thing on my mind when I watch them. There are definitely artists who select thumbnail images of questionable taste for their videos, and perhaps that influences some people’s decisions, but many of my favorite artists don’t even show their faces during their videos.
I just wish I’d had these videos in college when my anxiety would keep me awake for days at a time. Now, these videos calm me right down, and I can get some sleep. Sometimes the strangest things just work, and you learn not to question them.
8
@Pete Yes, the library!
1
OMG. I've had this since I was young, I once tried to explain it to someone, but he just didn't get it so I have kept it to myself. I, too, first noticed it when I was very young and someone would brush my hair. I also remember getting the feeling when I was in elementary school and would be in the library and the librarian would be helping me find a book. I am now a librarian myself and the feeling washes over me when someone needs help that requires a bit of searching. It happens in those quiet spaces between our interactions. I can't wait to watch the videos and see if they work for me.
2
Consider this: notice that in most, of not all, of the examples of activities or scenarios that induce this state are associated with the focusing or collection of attention. Its description throughout the piece is identical to the initial, early contact with the first Jhana or concentration state (there are 8 levels in total) described in Buddhist meditation. All are very normal and pleasing states that we are able to enter through meditative exercise. This concentration practice is called Shamata and it's distinct but complimentary to Vipassana (Insight) practice.
For readers who've experienced it, try this: relax further into the sensation itself while letting go of the external stimulus that seemed to induce it. Curl up in it, relax into it, let it wash over or drench you. This may serve as a little, useful introduction into what is possible for humans through meditation.
4
I'm a teacher, and sometimes I have this experience when a student who has been struggling has a sudden insight into a problem, or when they make an unexpected, deep connection between a lesson and the wider world,
3
Such are the gentle pleasures of everyday life. There is a five and dime store in my city that adds fragrances to this melange, with a pervasive fragrance of oil soap, wood floor, and sugar. When youtube emits odors, this place will join the asmr fleet.
I love Bob Ross and I know the exact feeling he elicits. It is strange that it is not universal.
It is difficult to "intellectualize" the feeling because that usually kills it for me. When I start to think about it, it washes away like it never happened.
4
Where were these people 50 years ago (not born or oblivious) when Andy Warhol did this with helium filled year balloons. Mesmerism is nothing new. Fads are fads, and this sensory relaxation technique will go the way a "tanking" (look it up) soon! What nonsense!
1
hahaha, not really. it has been a thing for years now. I have been listening to it for more then 3 years and still enjoy it.
Cats have known this all along.
Now if we could only learn to purr.
Bliss...
5
Let me get this straight....these people feel vaguely defined "tingles" generated by random sounds in random contexts. This rapidly led to giving this sensation (something akin to fingernails on a blackboard or hearing a coyote howl in the night) a pseudo-scientific name, pseudo-scientific research employing very questionable scientific techniques. This led to the inevitable monetization opportunities of mass gullibility. It's not just the climate science deniers and anti-vaccine public health menaces who have their heads in the sand....or someplace else.
5
@Michael Yonchenko Gee, what bees wax is it of yours if this phenomena makes some people feel better or calm down or go to sleep more easily, from watching a few videos, I sort of felt the relaxation, no tingles, but I think it is great that other people do.
What has this to do with climate deniers and anti-vaxers anyway. No one is suggesting that you have to get enjoyment from this thing. I do not get any brain tingle, but it is pleasant and soothing. And I have always liked the specific sounds which are used. I get bored after a while but I think it is great for those like it.
Lighten up and be glad for people who enjoy this.
6
@Michael Yonchenko
Right. I'm not a climate denier nor an anti-vaxxer, nor a flat-earther. I'm not religious nor superstitious. I have experienced this ASMR feeling and today was the first day I learned that others experienced it in the same way. I don't seek out this feeling, but I can understand it. I'm not going to watch these videos except out of curiosity.
But if you are as objective as your comment implies, then keep an open mind about phenomenon like ASMR. There certainly is no reason to belittle those who claim the experience or to attempt to impose your own biases on their perceptions.
2
@Badger
Forgive me if I belittled those who have had this experience. I, too, have had these experiences, and enjoy them. They are common physiological responses. I also did not mean go belittle anyone's curiosity about them. There is nothing to be gained by anyone for doing that. Please accept my apology.
But DO belittle the self-appointed experts, gurus and scammers who promote these phenomena as anything more than they are, and those who monetize this nonsense. I assumed that anyone who reads the NY Times could spot this BEE-ESS a mile away.
1
I think there is a bigger picture to the ASMR phenomenon. Most in Western culture live using a cognitive approach to reality where labels and concepts define the world. The other side of the coin is direct sensory experience whereby we experience things without a defining label. The process of shifting from the cognitive to the sensory has been called the spiritual journey, where we can live more in the moment.
The pleasant sensations that can be found with sensory triggers are part of a process to release us from the overreliance on consensus-based labels. Now that ASMR is a thing, we may want to possess it like any other interesting phenomenon. But, if ASMR can be looked at as a process rather than an end in itself, it can have the potential to liberate us from a stagnating and conditioned view of the world.
1
When I was in Medical School in the mid '70s, we had a professor, who studied addiction and endorphins. He was aware of this type of pleasure surge, associated with listening to music in some people, and thought that it might be related to his primary research interests. I think he had trouble finding recruits, even among the students, because the physiology investigation would require spinal taps.
1
This revealing article feels liberating to read. At nearly 70, I have been experiencing this particular sensation all my life. I called it "carbonation" and had come to believe I was the only one. Over the years I've asked friends if they knew the feeling, always to be met with vague non-responses. Now I know I'm not alone. By the way, many of my tingle-inducing moments are triggered by quiets scenes of a child or small animal doing something intently.
8
This is very interesting to me. I'm one of the people who would *like* to experience this, but can't. I'm wondering whether ASMR is related to the experience of being doted on by parents.
That is something I did not experience.
I sometimes feel something like ASMR when listening to music or hearing a person tell an emotionally stirring story.
1
Frisson is the closest non-ASMR thing I could compare sound-provoked tingles to. The funny, gentle but powerful ripple of hair raising sensation that goes up your spine when you hear a particularly moving piece of music.
Those goofy Orgasmotron head massagers toys or gag gifts - the ones that look like a broken whisk and are placed on the scalp slowly - also approximate the sensation, albeit much more coarsely and to a near unpleasant intensity
1
I'm a 61 yr old woman and don't watch You Tube at all. When I first read about this phenomenon, I knew exactly how I have always experienced it: watching someone receive a head massage or any direct head/hair contact, or sometimes a shoulder rub or hand or foot massage. I also love to get massages; I love having my hair brushed and washed; and those sensations themselves are pleasurable in a tingly way. So I'm not sure if the ASMR is specifically watching, while receiving the touch is just sensory. Thoughts?
AND I hate, passionately, many of the sounds mentioned. Gum chewing, saliva, swallowing, evoke a repellent response. (There's a scientific diagnosis for it, can't remember it.) But that response isn't dissimilar to the good tingles; yet my brain perceives them differently (this is good! this is terrible!).
The brain is mysterious.
6
I [JGC] first enjoyed the sensation in a hair salon in Harare, Zimbabwe probably in 1981. The next time was perhaps 20 years later, on the dock of the family cottage on Lake Bellaire, enjoying the sunshine. I also tried to look up the sensations on the internet and eventually stumbled on the "whispering" and other sites, but none of them have helped. I can enjoy gentle tingles now just by relaxing and thinking about it, but only rarely manage to enjoy the full-on sensation. Glad at least to know I'm not alone and not a freak! ;-)
2
Kundalini yoga. For those seeking a reliable, ancient, and healthy way to experience the state described in this article, try a traditional Kundalini yoga class. The tingling pleasure is part of most, but not every set. And unlike other practices that repeat the same set over and over, Kundalini teachers use a wide range of different sets. So you might have to try more than once to get the experience. There is so much more to gain by practicing Kundalini than just the tingle, but it is part of the package. Enjoy!
3
You might really enjoy hearing Jennifer Piercy's Yoga Nidra for sleep. It's easy to find if you search for it. Very calming and spiritual. I have never tried Kundalini Yoga, but will now.
This sounds/feels similar to the free flow of bodily sensation talked about in Vipassana meditation. however, the goal in Vipassana is to have equanimity with all sensations, not to become addicted to feeling/finding a particular sensations.
When watching these videos I felt more of an opening sensation in my heart and chest. Does anyone else feel that?
Whatever it is, if it soothes and brings peace to people, I guess I'm for it. Although the whole youtube thing seems a bit weird to me personally.
7
This “ASMR” experience is something I’ve felt many times in my life - usually in response to moments of awe, beauty or pleasure. That tingling sensation, whether from a beautiful sunset, or an inspired thought, or a stanza of music, or soft kiss at the nape of the neck, is joyful and fleeting. It has never come from strangers’ whispers, which I find creepy.
3
I was fortunate enough to be raised in the country in Connecticut on a lake with streams brooks and rivers nearby, I know many feel the same way as I that any sound of running or dripping water induces a serene feeling. For me the feeling is almost transcendent. I listen to rain or ocean all night, every night, except when it's actually raining. Especially now that I live in California and it is so much drier. There is something essential and primordial about the sound of water.
1
I have experienced it, my wife does not. It is peculiar when viewed as an inter personal rather than an Intra personal thing.
A lot less so than that weird experience where one individual experiences pleasure from another’s pain and loss and suffering.
As someone who works in an open office environment, the constant, inescapable accompaniment of human activity; gum chewing, typing, talking on the phone, crunching potato chips, nail clipping, and other intrusions into my peace and quiet sends me diving into my very expensive noise-cancelling headphones with murder on my mind.
10
I just want to say thank you to the New York Times, and to Gibi and the other ASMRtists to whom I listen to fall asleep. I’ve experienced this my whole life. As a kid, it was either watching Bob Ross paint (the sounds of his voice plus the sound of the brushes on canvas), or “close attention” (mostly someone looking at me while they sketch me) which triggered it. But it was a Times article in 2012 (shared via Kotaku) that informed me of the official name, and allowed me to find these videos on YouTube. Being able to listen to these videos every night has mitigated my insomnia tremendously. So, thank you!
3
The writer misses one obvious reason why there's a gender imbalance in the number of ASMR channels. It's not necessarily that viewers/listeners care, it's that men are less comfortable with the performance aspect, which is decidedly un-masculine. As another male who watched Bob Ross growing up, my favorite channel now is MassageASMR, an Australian man who only has to say "G'day," and I'm relaxed. I only wish there were more men taking this on, as their voices are just as soothing and "tingly."
5
Nāḍī Sanskrit: नाडी, lit. 'tube, pipe'; Tamil: நாடி, lit. 'nerve, blood vessel, pulse' (About this soundlisten)) is a term for the channels through which, in traditional Indian medicine and spiritual knowledge, the energies such as prana of the physical body, the subtle body and the causal body are said to flow. Within this philosophical framework, the nadis are said to connect at special points of intensity, the chakras.[1] The three principal nadis are the ida on the left, the sushumna in the centre, and the pingala on the right; they run from the base of the spine to the head.
1
For men (and perhaps women, but I don't know), this feeling often comes over you in the barber's chair, getting your hair cut.
These days, I go to a hair "salon," not a barber shop, but the feeling is the same as the stylist snips, shapes and brushes. It becomes even more intense if the stylist gives you a scalp massage -- something that is rare but always welcomed.
I don't really need an explanation. I think it is something in your synapses that responds to unusual or out-of-the-ordinary stimuli. People from other countries and cultures are commenting on this sensation, so it is likely to be an effect common to all of humanity. Which is a thought that just made me shiver slightly.
2
I'm a church choir director. Every week I experience the tingling and euphoria of ASMR. It's an amazing feeling that I also get in other situations. It was enlightening to read about this!
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What's the difference between ASMR and frisson?
2
Frisson is very similar and may be the same phenomenon on a spectrum, IMHO. Though the frisson sensation to me is more associated with overwhelming sense of awe, strong emotion, moving music. ASMR is more associated with very quiet sounds, relaxation, and non-sexual interpersonal intimacy.
3
Some of us are quite familiar with this sensation. We take drugs.
2
@Peter Aretin
Best comment by a long shot!
"Frisson" has been around for ages...surprising that the author didnt know this.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson
3
I'm in my 60s, and have had this experience my entire life. I don't keep track of the triggers, nor do I go looking for them. I just enjoy the sensation when it arrives, which is almost always when I'm alone and relaxed, but not exclusively (I've felt this stuck in traffic, which is a pretty nice antidote to impatience). And I've always called this sensation "goosebumps", which I much prefer over ASMR, because goosebumps preserves the mystery and innocence of the experience.
11
This discussion snapped me right back to the 1960s popular literature on epiphany: Mircea Eliade on hierophany, C.S. Lewis on emotional epiphany, Jung on inexplicable feelings and emotions, and most especially (and my favorite), Gaston Bachelard, phenomenologist author of "The Poetics of Space". The transcendent conditions include physical sensations.
8
When I was a kid, we used to pretend to crack an egg over a friend's head and with very gentle touches mimic the "feel" of the egg's inside contents running over the person's hair. Especially from the back this little exercise induced a pleasant tingly feeling.
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@Jane Funny that you mention it. We used to do that too, and I remember the comforting feeling when a good friend would "crack an egg" on top of my head.
11
I gave it a try.
I can't say I experienced anything more pleasurable than what one feels when taking a deep breath... and I only got that because I took a deep breath.
The videos do indeed look creepy. What's with the fingernails on the plastic skull?
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@Robert Holmen Some of them are definitely weird and creepy. It's a very individual thing. Not only the channel you watch but the triggers involved as well. I've probably gone through dozens and dozens of different ASMR artists and only some of them appeal to me, and even with the ones I like, not all of their videos are appealing.
For example, tapping as you mentioned isn't very relaxing for me, I find it irritating and repetitive. Mouth sounds or eating sounds are also not appealing at all.
But, as a bearded guy I do find lots of enjoyment from hair cutting and shaving videos. The sound of the clippers, the scissors, the sound of hair being combed and brushed and cut, the sound of the barber's cape, the mixing of the shaving cream, very relaxing sounds!
I would encourage everyone to try a number of different channels and types of trigger sounds. It's kind of hit and miss but once you find one that appeals to you, I think you'll find it very enjoyable!
As an aside, I have also found ASMR videos to work very well for turning off my brain at night and falling asleep. I've tried various white noise type recordings, nature recordings, etc and they never worked well for me but an ASMR video with a quiet whisper and gentle sounds knocks me out like a light!
5
@Robert Holmen
Don’t know about the fingernails but the skull appears to be a binaural microphone. This device uses the shape of a head with mics placed in the ears to capture sound with the same acoustic properties as your ears. The best way to listen is with headphones or ear buds. They can be used to dramatic effect since they create an audible sensation of ‘being there’.
Oh! It's a thing! At rare times, my scalp draws itself together as if I've stumbled into an electrical field, and the skin just sings and hugs itself and gets all shivery for 15 seconds. It's delicious, and then it's gone and I go back to trying to make myself "learn" synesthesia. (The human nervous system is amazing, so why not?) If there's a trigger for this lovely electrical tingle I'm not aware of it.
2
ASMR is nothing more than goosebumps, which is definitely not a new feeling.
9
Sounds like you feel left out, Noah. You have my sympathies.
Yep.... happened exactly one time for me. Was drowsy, lounging on a sofa listening to classical music with my eyes closed before a holiday meal and.... BAM! There it was.... like flying thru the cosmos with a million sparkling stars all around. Eventually the music changed to a different classical tune and poof... it was gone.
I have experienced ASMR, but this is the first time I have heard about it as a trend. We always called it “the willies.” I think the last trigger was the French horn solo at the beginning of Star Trek. Watching young women on YouTube sounds creepy to me. Yet another weird way the internet allows people to make money. What this article describes is another manifestation of people needing external validation and stimuli for their experiences. I think reliance on external stimuli of any sort is potentially dangerous. It’s the type of thing that can lead to obsession and stalking, as alluded to in the article. ASMR seems to have become another cultish subculture. I repeat, creepy.
5
Every video was beyond irritating- had to stop before the first minute- I couldn’t take it. Especially the saliva sound in whispering— Gawd almighty!
The article itself describes it best:
“A lot of the visuals you might see” in A.S.M.R. videos “relate to how you might visualize what happens during healthy foreplay,” Craig Richard says. “People talking gently to each other, people touching each other lightly, gazing into each other’s eyes, expressing physical or vocal care for each other — making the other person feel safe.” If A.S.M.R. is not sexual itself, then Richard believes it might still belong to a general complex of safety, caring, connectedness and trust. “It could heighten a sexual moment, in a way the same way that massage oil can heighten....”
I don’t have ASMR as described...but the sound of of whispering of my family, esp. siblings or children, the feel of my mother’s fingers feathering down my face (something she did when I was a child), my hand using the cotton bud in the ear canal.... yes, All of these cause a feeling of peace and even sublime calm... but they are all intimate, private moments with self or people who love me and vice-versa.
Even the thought of a stranger trying to do anything like this would raise my hackles.
Perhaps ASMR does exist burn as a varied experience for everyone out there.
1
I've never experienced this feeling and in fact the few times I've tried watching one of those videos they seemed so creepy and gross and almost physically repulsive that I had to turn them off within seconds. I believe that all these people are having a real feeling and I'm glad it feels so great to them, but those questioning why this writer seems to find the whole phenomenon weird and disturbing...it's because some of us have exactly the opposite response that you do to ASMR stimuli.
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@Mel
Ditto. This is the stuff that kept me awake because I couldn't get them out of my head.
9
@Mel
I can't watch the videos. Most of them are creepy and gross. I listen to them several times a day, though. I have full-blown ASMR
@Mel ugh, me too. it's like nails on a chalkboard except instead of shudders down my spine, it feels like nausea or dread in my stomach. horrible.
Fifty years ago I was a novice in a religious order. I experienced this during prayer and meditation. The sensation started on the top of my head and continued throughout my body. I felt
warm tingling and the"caring, connectedness and trust" of something other than myself. After I left the convent (and religion) I often feel this sensation at various times without any stimulation. I don't relate to the ASMR videos but the description of the feeling seems similar. I look forward to real scientific study of this phenomenon.
142
@JL I recognized myself in your post. I have experienced these sensations since I was a child. They always occur when I am somehow in connection with something larger than myself, or when I feel very much at ease or in a flow state. The videos presented in the article do not trigger this feeling for me, although many of them are relaxing.
6
@JL This is quite common among meditators. And spiritualists believe the tingling is other 'higher' consciousnesses connecting to you.
4
@JL, I experienced these sensations from childhood on. I, too, would try to describe them, wondering if anyone else felt them. The triggers for me are mostly be someone using something of mine, like a teacher picking up my pencil and making marks on one of my papers, or a friend borrowing my scissors, etc. I also get the sensations when watching someone crafting something. I used to think of them as the 'warm fuzzies', a feeling that usually spread from my midsection to my head. Having my hair brushed, or back stroked were also triggers.
I have not yet found any ASMR videos to be very triggering. It seems to be proximity and connection to 'real' people and my personal possessions that evoke the fullness of ASMR for me.
7
My young son has watched these for years and sometimes we watch them together in bed when he feels anxious. They are soothing because they help the mind to relax and focus on calming, pleasant actions like mixing paint in the same way meditation quiets the mind by focusing on breathing or some other quiet repetitive stimuli. It's no secret that we're drawn to hypnotic visuals and it shouldn't be mysterious. Brains need to relax and they can do so by following pleasant benign repetitive and predictable action because it takes almost no thought to process to follow while also stimulating the subconscious to predict. I believe the euphoria and brain-gasms (!) are triggered by sensory visual stimuli related to physical sensation so I try to steer my son away from the images of nails gently tapping or the touch vusuals like gently caressing lush velvet but I'm sure he watches those too on his own time. It's all quite safe and natural.
31
@CR Hare I don't think it has to do with visual at all. I have had ASMR since childhood - almost always in libraries when librarians talk to me. I think now it must be the whispering. But the seeing aspect doesn't have anything to do with it - it's the sound.
2
@CR Hare "It's all quite safe and natural" thats a laugh you don't have to look far to see asmr has become more about softcore porn than anything, are there safe asmr out there sure. I would never watch asmr vids with a kid.
@CR Hare
ASMR is not a response to visuals. Its auditory.
1
I’m a massage therapist and I know that very light touch has a quite unique and pleasant effect. I often start a massage with this as I ease into the work and allow the client to become used to my touch. I feel that the client’s qi, or chi rises to the surface and follows my own. This is like making the type of gentle ripples on a pond the bring the fish to the surface. A light fingernail scratching of the scalp or palmar or plantar surface is another like technique.
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"If A.S.M.R. plays (or played) a key survival role, why does it seem that only some people can feel it?"
Maybe many are not paying attention? I experience ASMR, but I have to be actively thinking about it. In fact, with the recent ASMR reporting, I find myself paying attention more. However, viewing videos is generally not a trigger for me.
In looking back, I first noticed this effect when getting a haircut, consistent with the "grooming" stimulus. Physical, mostly soothing, semi rhythmic, touching is the primary initiator. Maybe going back to my mother stroking my arm as a child to sooth me? Strangely, I have been trying to translate this to biannual dental cleanings. I really have to pay close attention for ASMR to occur during that activity!
35
@Leithauser Ha! I doubt it will happen in the dentist's chair.
@Leithauser
Haircuts almost always do it for me; as does getting my measurements taken when I used to do theatre. Sometimes, but not guaranteed, getting vitals checked at a drs appointment will also do it for me.
2
@Leithauser: hair styling or washing -- yes. Teeth cleaning? absolutely NO. That's unpleasant.
I've long experienced ASMR from childhood but I never heard the term used to describe it. I just thought it was a pleasant reaction to something that feels nice or light touch.
I am pretty sure it is NOT a reaction to something unpleasant or painful like dental work.
1
Never felt this, never heard of this. You guys never speak about it in my company anyway.
When the barber shaves my neckline, I do get a pleasant tingling sensation, like a tickling almost, but not it either.
My feet are ultra-sensitive. If I'm getting a pedicure, my body will literally yank my foot away from the startled pedicurist. I can't take it.
Odd, the body.
28
@Jim Muncy
Feet are so sensitive. I love foot massages! Not, however, the gritty aspects of a pedicure (cutting and filing the nails is not comfortable). Massages from professionals or non-pros who know what they are doing provide relief from aches that we have learned to tolerate so well that we are astounded altho' good it feels when when they are relieved. Rough treatment - pressing too hard, or in the wrong places, OTOH, hurts. Touching too gingerly often tickles.
There are also belief systems which hold that different parts of the feet are tied to different organs, and sensitivities in the feet reflect something about, say, your liver of lungs.
But perhaps they are simply exquisitely sensitive to touch (unless the nerves are damaged).
Foot massages can be also be a good way to give gentle physical comfort to someone who is ill or in pain or who cannot really respond anymore to verbal communication.
4
@Jim Muncy
>When the barber shaves my neckline, I do get a pleasant tingling sensation, like a tickling almost, but not it either.
That's it!
2
Interesting article. I’m left with questions though and this seems like just a hyper connected sensation similar to LSD. But can’t help but wonder if this is just the bag scene from American Beauty? Why is the YouTube scene obsessed with narration? I’m not sure if I’ve felt this, but as a painter I think this could be similar to the rush I get looking at really good art.
27
@Michael. I love and collect antique cut glass and vintage glassware. When I step into a glass show, I feel what I call “chills,” probably similar to Michael’s rush. Those are the only times I’ve felt anything close to ASMR. Well, does petting a cat count?
3
Art often brings a sort of mindgasm for me. A sensation in the mind similar to an orgasm but not similar in the physical way. music or visual art can be so powerful.
1
One man's trash is another man's treasure. Color me in as one of those people who find A.S.M.R. to be the polar opposite of relaxing. Maybe not as bad as nails on a chalkboard, but disturbing and annoying nonetheless.
I sometimes wonder if there is some fundamental difference between the brains of millenials and the rest of us.
59
@Spike Exactly. I find the examples listed here akin to minor torture.
10
@Spike Perhaps being from NYC the things you find relaxing - construction activity, police sirens, car horns, and loud street noise - is different then what other people find relaxing. I am not a millennial, in my late 50s and have felt these tingling sensations for a long time. There is definitely some to it.
11
@Spike I enjoy ASMR a lot and I'm not a millennial. I think gender plays a big role here, most of the baffled comments on this story are from men.
12
I used to get this when I was younger, a fleeting sensation of happiness or satisfaction in my head. It wasn't triggered by anything in particular, but I tended to get it when things were going well. I always assumed it was a random release of some brain chemical. It was nice and I miss it.
62
I have often felt this sensation at classical music concerts as if the music was coming out the top of my head- a very pleasant and distinctive tingling feeling, sometimes lasting several minutes. The video was relaxing especially if I closed my eyes. I thought it was indeed connecting with the same part of the brain, but not nearly as stimulating as the musical experience
31
@Angela There’s a much older term, “frisson”, for the sensation as caused by music specifically. I’ve heard a lot of debate as to whether or not it’s the same thing as ASMR (I believe it is, personally, but that’s far from a universal opinion).
6
@Angelayes for me it is the sound of piano keys in particular playing...like listening to even a not very experienced player practicing or all the way up to a very talented church musician playing a particularly beautiful piece of music....I can sit there and have the scalp tingles throughout the entire piece of music it is really fabulous.
2
@Angela ... Yes! You nailed ... classical music! It is true! ... Now ... Why?
2
I realized at a very young age - perhaps around 4 - the phenomena of ASMR. I was lying on the floor and I was captured how my brain tingled when a young couple, who were sitting close to me, were whispering between themselves. I didn't focus on what they were saying...it was the pleasurable mind state of that inner vibration that I recall.
I'm 63 now and I am one of Gibi's subscribers. I'm not a fan of other sounds other than her whispering voice which goes right to the same place in my mind as that 4 year-old kid. It's not the content of her talk that matters, it the actual sounds, especially prolonged s-sounds. I put my ear buds in, block the light from my phone (I never watch the video while listening), and I fall away to another zone.
I've asked other family members to see if it works for them. Just the opposite happens; it's irritating. So, obviously, it's not for everyone.
75
You might really enjoy a recording by Jennifer Piercy called yoga nidra for sleep. If you do a search for her it will bring up her site. There is something magical in her voice. I have no personal or business relationship with her. But I can relate to what you are saying.
1
@djembedrummer: I reckon it is different and individual for every person.
I experience it most extremely when I watch OTHER PEOPLE draw or work intently on some craft project....and this was true even when I was a small child. Not when I do such things myself, but watching others.
Also, often when someone combs or styles my hair, or washes it. (But not when they cut it.)
Whispering or soft voices can set it off, but not always. I find the videos of Marie Kondo -- the ones where SHE narrates in her own voice, mostly in Japanese -- to be highly conducive to ASMR -- I have mostly no idea what she is saying. It's her very soft, low voice.
1
@djembedrummer It's that whispering voice that drives a stake through my brain, like those "prolonged s-sounds" we heard in church pews or hearing women rummaging through their purses.
1
Apparently, I've been feeling something like A.S.M.R. since childhood, except I felt it mostly on the left side of my neck and back. It was triggered by soothing sounds when they were primarily in my left ear.
I don't feel it much these days, probably because my hearing isn't what it used to be. I somewhat miss it.
1
This is intuitive/sensual thinking. It is 'thinking' with your senses and 'feeling' with your mind. Feelings like curiosity, courage and dignity fall into this category. Our culture over-rates the intellect which is subject to spam because it's like a hard drive. We trust 'emotions' which means we are reacting to the past and we barely notice the valuable input of what we see, hear, taste, touch or smell - thereby ignoring what's happening in the present. By really noticing what you 'feel'/sense when you brush your hair or look at the sky, or cross the street, you simply tune to the safety and wonder of that moment.
2
I find any regular TV programming that is also loved by the A.S.M.R. community to be annoying, irritating and unbearable. I am taking about programs like Bob Ross's 'Joy of Painting' or even shows like Mr. Rogers (I cannot stand his 'soothing' tone of voice). Watching someone chew or brush hair, etc? Heaven save me!
Whatever is the opposite of A.S.M.R., it's me.
1
@Linda
Mr Rogers gives me the willies too. What is supposed to be emotionally supportive just feels creepy.
However, I heartily recommend watching his 1969 pitch to Congress for money to support public television. It made me understand what he was about and gives me a feeling a little bit like ASMR.
Just search for "mr rogers congress" without the quotes.
@Linda
The opposite of A.S.M.R. is to be like the innocent kid at the parade of the emperor's new clothes. Be happy Linda. Stay skeptical.
2
I'm certainly triggered by ASMR, but not in a good way. It makes my skin crawl and my teeth hurt and if I listen for too long I become angry. Crunching snow and cotton balls have always given me the heebie jeebies, the same feeling I get from these videos.
1
Want some? Get a cat. Cats know all about it and if you’re good, cat will instruct.
18
This seems like it is simply Frisson by another name : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson
As a guitar player of many years, I found that it is a sensation that increases the more I play and the more time I sink into the instrument.
4
the first time i ever felt this asmr sensation was in daycare.. i remember my teacher/supervisor speaking to me and calling my name in a really soft voice and my whole head tingling and feeling good. I still experience it to this day when someone speaks softly to me.. but these videos have never done much for me
1
I've suffered from insomnia since junior high. Until I found A.S.M.R, about the only thing that helped was a couple of glasses if wine before bed (not healthy) or drugs (not something I wanted to do long term). I found A.S.M.R. by accident while reading an article in this paper several years ago. I have a few favorites (The French Whisperer, Whispers in Bloom, Let's Find Out ASMR), that I know will get me to sleep quickly. I have no idea why it works, I just know it works, and works without the need for chemical assists. Ironically, I HATE the sound of whispering - I just like soft speaking, and especially like science based ASMR videos. To each his own!
3
I’ve experienced sensations such as this during meditation or in my qigong practice. I’ve also experienced it doing energy work on clients. I’m sure someone has said this already, but I doubt standard Western medicine will find an answer to this phenomenon. Look to the East for answers. To me it’s clearly an energetic movement. Call it qi, chi, prana, kundalini. We are energetic beings at our core and if you were to ask anyone who works in the energetic realms like acupuncturists, qigong or tai chi or yoga teachers, massage therapists, Reiki Masters or other energy based bodyworkers, the list goes on, I think you will find them not at all surprised by the descriptions people are giving here and would totally support it as a real and normal thing.
1
I wish I experienced ASMR. Seems positive, creative, harmless at worst. And I love that people did this on their own.
4
It obviously became a sensation because all the fuss over CBD was winding down and this was the next big "viral" phenom.
1
ASMR has been around for years, it just didn’t have a standard name. I had it happen a few times sporadically as a child 20 years ago, usually from lice checks, having my hair brushed, the “egg cracking” game, hearing strangers whispering. Now in the age of the Internet (for at least 5 years), it has a specific name (frisson, goosebumps, willies are similar but not the same sensation). Knowing what to call the phenomenon allows people who experience it to trigger it at will from a library of thousands of videos as varied as one could hope for. If it is a trend, it’s a good one!
Wow, I've experienced this since childhood and just thought I was weird. I only experienced it when I used to go to church(Catholic mass). For me it's more aurally induced than visual, and I wonder whether characteristics of people on YouTube would be distracting, for example those manicured nails. Like when your brain notices and reacts to things--kind of like unsuccessful meditation--it won't work.
1
I had no idea that some people would seek this sensation through watching Youtube videos. Thanks for the informative piece and a word to name this. I discovered that some sounds trigger this burst of tingling starting at the base of the back of my head and moving up and down my spine in my teens. It feels quite nice but once the novelty wore out I stopped purposely triggering it.
Reading this and thinking about this sensation did trigger it surprisingly. The way it alters spacial awareness or the sense of boundaries and the sense of self is pretty cool but it last only seconds. I much prefer emotional experiences that this more purely sensory one to feel connections and and find happiness.
1
Just go get your hair cut. Happens every time.
I've never heard of any of this trend before reading this article, but it sure is an eye opener. I had this sensation throughout my adolescence and with decreasing frequency into my very early 30s. I didnt know what it was and I recall being simultaneously afraid of it, ashamed of it (Catholic), and in love with it. The triggers were thoroughly benign and unpredictable, which made it more scary. I called it "the feeling" and kept it mostly a secret because I thought it was weird and perhaps a sign of developing mental or neurological illness that I didnt want to reveal. I am 61 now and I am sure I haven't experienced this since giving birth at 35. I wonder if it is a physiological condition of maturing, like growing pains, that some simply feel more acutely than others.
2
Used to get this strongly while watching Mr Rogers Neighborhood, a buzzing, pleasing feeling when he would talk softly and make little crafts. I never really enjoyed the show beyond this physical feeling.
Later in College a professor had this same effect - I remember that he spoke/acted very Mr-Rogers-like.
I'm not sure if some of the folks responding to this article are really describing ASMR - it's not a feeling of satisfaction that comes from good things happening, really, it's almost more of a physical response to a certain stimulus and has little to do with the content or significance of that stimulus.
3
I tingled all the way through that article.
3
@MattF
I recommend that you put on a sweater.
2
It seems a lot of this article conflates sexuality with sensuality. ASMR seems to be mostly about sensations (hearing, sight, touch). A positive aspect of this ASMR movement is to separate the sensual from the sexual so we can just enjoy our senses.
19
I think there are varieties of this experience. Some may be connected to deep artistic, religious, or philosophical feelings. For instance, in Doris Lessing's book 'Martha Quest' (p. 51-53), she describes an experience that sounds physically similar but is for her a very intense and decidedly unfuzzy dissolving into the universe - a very profound and intense illumination. My (regrettably few) experiences have felt similar. It's wonderful to read all these comments, and I look forward to thinking about them more next time I take a quiet walk in the woods.
This is a feeling I share, but (mistakenly I guess) have treated as something that could not be sought; it had to find me.
I find it reassuring that an online movement forms trying to identity and experience a feeling. I'm heartened people are trying to highlight experience so others can have more refined experience. As other commenters have noted, it gets closer to the experiential traditions of meditation dating back millenia.
But the absolutely amazing thing to me is the balance in this article, between wandering and seeking, interest and scepticism, evaluating and appreciating, considering and (....whatever it is that says "just do it"). It is extremely difficult not to orient around a dominant pole of analysis or exposition, exuberance or offense. The sensitivity the author displays to the subject notwithstanding her ASMR "virginity" is exquisite. It shows the breadth of childish awe in nature and the depth and structure of a scientific method.
I want to protect the author against all the clamor and clawing she may stimulate and let her explore the forest of our modern sanities. There should be a MacArthur Genius award unknown even to the recipient.
1
I am an avid ASMR video watcher but I do not get any ASMR response.
ASMR videos are often simply nice amateur acting - often involving attractive young women who are paying personal attention to viewers - often in some form of caregiving role such as a doctor or as a woman acting "motherly" in some way.
It may sound sexist, but many ASMR viewers are men who are starved for female attention. In their roles, these female ASMR actresses are supplying an ersatz form of that female attention. More specifically, they are satisfying a deep instinctive need than many males have regarding the classical female gender role of caregiver. In a sense, ASMR videos are like "emotional pornography" especially for those men who are lacking "Vitamin Female" in their lives.
1
Is this another Gwenyth Paltrow scheme?
6
@Spencer
If it can be monetized then probably so.
2
Wonderful thinking and writing, Jamie. Excellent analysis.
5
@Eliot
No, in fact, it is not.
It is vacuous and of a soundly - and deservedly so - long out of date New Age variety. Sophomoric at best.
1
When I first started reading this article I didn't think I had this response. I do have the occasional experience of certain music passages sending chills up my spine. I thought this was something different from A.S.M.R. until I read the comments from different people describing their reactions. So, is this the same thing or something different? Also, what about those metal scalp tingler thingys? How does that compare with an A.S.M.R. response?
2
@Ruby
Great question! Perhaps we will discover that each time a part or parts of the brain are stimulated by the sublime, via our senses, memory or imagination, the response we feel is the brain's way of saying, "Thank you".
The head massager is to ASMR tingles like concentrated artificial cherry flavor is to a cherry. Similar, but more intense (nearly unpleasantly, squirmingly so) and lacking something in nuance and depth.
Frisson is closer but to me always is accompanied by moving music and a powerful emotional rush. Tingles are a gentler, quieter sensation, more associated with relaxation, a sense of focus, non sexual intimacy, and quiet sounds.
Too many people home alone with their screens, wanting someone to stroke their hair, just like when mom did it.
11
@Michael c
Except that it most often does not involve video viewing, Mr. Cool cynic.
4
@Michael c: I've had this since I was 5 or 6 at least, and that would go back to about 1960....no screens, no social media, no internet....and always experienced in it in "real time" with real people. My only exposure to the videos was via this article. I had no inkling this phenomena had a NAME, let alone a YouTube presence!
1
Enjoy it while you can. In my early 30s it occurred pretty regularly and was often strong enough to make me dizzy or stumble slightly when it happened. My trigger was mostly limited to one thing, interacting with friends and "feeling" their happiness, most often in the workplace. At the time I worried it was some kind of minor brain malfunction, so I never told anyone.
Now I'm over 60 and it never happens anymore. I guess it just slowly stopped along the way. I could say it was enjoyable but it made me afraid something was wrong, something that wasn't supposed to happen, like a mild seizure lasting a few seconds.
It's a relief to know that it's rather common. Because it was associated with mild fear or worry that something wasn't right, I don't miss it, and don't wish for it to return. But I do miss the kinds of exquisite tactile and aural pleasures described in the article which could be so soothing to me as a young person.
6
Next thing you know, someone snapping gum behind you on an airplane will be ASMR.
5
@Marcimayerson
Well, one poster did say she enjoys when someone kicks her seat on an airplane.
I experience that elusive tingle sometimes when I read a beautifully turned phrase. I imagine my pupils dilating as I savored the words.
I've always thought Bob Ross was just creepy. And, those whispering videos make my skin crawl. To each his own...
12
@Ms. Pea
I agree! So annoying.
3
I’m 58 and have been doing this since I can remember. Glad to hear that it’s a legit phenomenon; every time I would try to explain it to someone, no one could understand.
It appears I seem to good at it. For many years I’ve been able to close my eyes and think to myself, Let it happen, and boom. Starts in the head, down the spine and through the extremities. I can do that two to three times in a row, but it seems the brain needs some time to reset after that.
A non-erotic braingasm is the perfect description.
8
Reading this I thought it was bunk. Then I watched the video. And got the sensation
2
I spent all of 15 minutes trying to feel something watching one of these videos. Nope, more annoyed than satisfied. Those voices drive me crazy.
8
ASMR for me at least is not about tingles. Did the author as a child never get a warm drowsy mind-dissolving feeling when her grandmother stroked her head, or when listening to a favorite teacher read "Charlotte's Web"? That would be sad.
4
I am intrigued with anything that can help me sleep better. I just watched a few minutes of a few videos - is the author trying to convince us that ASMR does not have sexual overtones? Then why are the women dressed in mini dresses, full makeup? Why are they even in the videos at all? I can see the point of the crinkling paper, etc. but having to watch the people in the videos is distracting to me.
2
@Heather ever try the Sleep Stories app?
1
@Heather Probably 50% of the videos involve no talking and often focus solely on the objects being tapped/scratched/rubbed near the microphone. You won't see the performer's face or their body, just their hands.
It's not necessary to watch the videos. I almost never do. I simply close my eyes and listen. In my case I rarely get any tingles. I use ASMR as a relaxant before going to sleep. That is, unless I fall asleep while listening.
Sexual overtones are probably there for some but I suspect that's a minority. I've grown to prefer "no talking" videos, which don't include whispering that might be considered erotic.
1
@Heather: I can't speak for the videos -- one I watched was little more than ad for an eye glass website! -- but I've had the phenomena my whole life. I had no idea if it even had a NAME prior to this.
None of my experiences have the slightest sexual overtones. I am a hetero woman, yet I respond to very low, soft female voices. I mostly experience this when getting my hair comb or braided or washed ... or when I watch another person (often a child) drawing or working intently on a craft.
Until this article, I had no idea that such videos existed. I am not sure I would have an ASMR response to the videos -- the two I watched made me incredibly sleepy but NOT tingly at all.
1
I must not be able to get this feeling. I watched the videos linked in the article and all they made me were either annoyed or tired.
1
I have the opposite, visceral reaction to sounds — hearing whispering, crinkles, and chewing makes my brain feels like it’s short-circuiting and I want to jump out of my skin. That credit card commercial with Jennifer Garner whispering almost killed me.
11
@FlipFlop Same here. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. If anything, it induces rage.
4
I've felt ASMR since I was a young child watching Bob Ross shows on PBS; that was the main reason I watched the show. I've been interested in ASMR since it was brought to our attention; before then I used massage videos, chiropractic videos, etc. Let me assure people; for me it is NOT sexual AT ALL. I get intense calm, tingling sensations in my scalp, fingertips, soles of my feet and down my back. But I have NEVER be aroused by ASMR and I don't find it sexual at all. I'm not sure why Jamie Keiles seems to think it is.
5
Watched a bob Ross video - nothing. Zippo. I guess this is a real phenomenon but not for me apparently. I'll have to get my kicks some other way.
I used to get the feeling readily. For example I was on the phone with a worker from India. His monotonous drone sent me into a trance and I no longer listened to what he is said but his voice is gave me tingles. I would take his calls in the future just to reproduce the effect. I came across ASMR videos and at first I was to be able to feel the sensation. But now, sadly, I can no longer feel it.
@Searching For ASMR Ha! I had a similar experience with an Indian worker I used to have calls with sometimes. She spoke not so much in a drone but at an unhurried pace, pronouncing each word loud and clear. I tried and failed to find similar speech to listen to on Youtube.
"I am not so libertine or well adjusted to make use of pleasures beyond a social script." Yikes. Maybe not the right person to be investigating the frontiers of pleasure... or perhaps exactly the right person?
2
I usually get this sensation when listening to an engaging live performance of the Grateful Dead.
7
Thank you, to the Times and the author, for bringing illumination after 40yrs of silent questions.
M
2
I used to feel this as a little girl when my mom would check my head and hair for ticks. I had completely forgotten about it. Fascinating!
2
I wonder if there is a term for the polar opposite of this phenomenon. My internal reaction to these stimuli is a sort of grating, low-grade annoyance. Soft, slow whispering voices drive me crazy. Meandering gentleness will eventually drive me to leave the room.
11
Misophonia
3
Since I lost my son 4 years ago, I get a strange sensation in my ears when I see babies. I tried to explain it to my family but couldn’t put it into words. It was like the inside of my ears got a chill. Not necessarily enjoyable but a very noticeable sensation. Is this ASMR? I don’t know... I think trauma and life experiences lie deep inside us, and triggers our bodies with these sensations. Whatever it is, it’s real.
6
After my mom died, I started noticing a light ache in the crook of my left arm when I was grieving. I still get it today, after 20 years, when I mourn loss. It is also triggered by the site of babies and/or moms loving on their children. I have never been able to find anyone else who has had it. You are the closest so far! Of course if you trigger arm ache, the hits are all about heart attacks or other pathologies, which this is absolutely not. For me, it has come to mean a physical manifestation of the reality of our love for each other, as you for your son. I cherish it. Peace.
Autocorrect Correction—if you “search” arm ache the hits are all about heart attack.
I secretly thought I was a unique little child around 66 years ago while watching "Ding Dong School" on a small, very heavy black and white RCA television set.
Then and since, I can watch people making gentle little movements and feeling what now, for the first time in my life, is called ASMR. It is like the pictures with embedded images where you have to relax your focus: it just happens during very peaceful interludes.
However it is elusive, and ASMR does seem less accessible as an adult. I thoroughly appreciate this modern day acknowledgement of something that I first experienced so long ago - something that I have always quietly looked out for, but only rarely tried to describe to others.
1
Finally! So I'm not a weirdo (not in this way anyway). Many years ago while lying in bed, trying to get to sleep, I heard my neighbour begin to shovel snow in the laneway between our houses. The rhythmic sound echoing from a distance in the quiet dark night just sent shivers through me. Upon reflection I realized it was more than just the sound, but rather that the sound allowed me to imagine I was sharing in the shovelers thought process. Each scrape was a choice, determined by the depth of the snow, the direction it would go and how far it could be pushed. I'd really get tingly when the sound stopped for a bit. In my mind I was there, sharing with him/her the question of how to proceed. When the shovelling restarted, pow, tingle time! Now I know that whenever I can, shall we say, "mentally eavesdrop" on someone's thought process, whether it's observing them shovelling snow, painting a picture or even working on a jigsaw puzzle, the tingles will come.
Okay, that still sounds weird.
11
Actually...it doesn't sound weird at all. I know exactly what you mean, and you've described it perfectly.
2
I was so surprised to read this article and find a name for something I have experienced for years and years. I am a choral singer, and there is always a moment in a performance where it just all comes together and I get a “chill” all,the way from my head down my spine. I’ve always likened it to what a drug user might feel (not being a drug user myself). But that hit you get when the singers and the audience are all caught in the moment is why I keep singing. You never know when it will happen (and if the concert is disappointing, it doesn’t happen at all) which is part of its attraction.
17
Yes, I've had these 'brain tingles' since I was a kid, also and never knew it was a 'thing' until a few years ago and I'm 60. For me, those who are trying too hard, such as some of the pro ASMRtists and whisperers, don't do it. It's a certiain 'je ne sais quoi' I think for each of us. There are certain voices of regular people on YouTube who have few followers but I've found and saved over the years (but can't listen to on a regular basis or the feeling goes away) I started saving them on my VHS during the '90's, albeit surreptitiously.
For me it's also getting or watching someone getting a facial or applying make-up, some Native American healing practices of waving a feather above someone, watching someone get a haircut or combed (but when I go into the salon myself they pay TOO much attention to me and try to spark conversation when all I want to do is close my eyes and concentrate (or let my mind be FREE of concentration!)
The craziest thing for me is watching Venipuncture or Phlebotomy training videos. I love when they wipe the cotton swab filled with rubbing alcohol over the patient's elbow crook. I think it might come from my experiences in the hospital when I was younger and scared, and the soothing feeling of the nice Phlebotomist and how calm the procedure made me in spite of my fears.
Oh well, thanks for letting me share. No, we're not a weird bunch!
3
I most recently felt this while watching Pete Buttgieg for the first time. The first feeling of real happiness that I've felt since Trump was elected. A calmness, peacefulness just enveloped me. I don't get that with any other politician. I didn't even get that with Barack Obama (he gave me hope). This was distinctly a feeling beyond hope. It was peace.
I know it sounds weird, but it's true!
12
I have ASMR and it's random in it's display. I don't go seeking out videos to trigger it, but I found an Indian man on Youtube who gives 'cosmic massages' to be a massive trigger. I'm pretty sure it isn't sexual, no in fact i'm 100% sure it isn't.
2
Sounds a lot like what the cavemen called 'pornography'. Any sensory messaging that stimulates random, unusual, and pleasurable feelings, desires, wants. Walk in front of a cake shop baking bread -- you'll get the feeling too. A vibrating electric tube might obtain this in a less random and more predictable way. The idea that this stuff should be exploited, or discussed outside the porn rubric is utterly scandalous.
Every time I read ...
I my gosh!!! I don't have A.S.M.R.!
@Dan Frazier
Lucky you! It's not an insurable pre-existing condition.
2
The sense of the ineffable is totally natural in humans under various conditions, sometimes triggered in temporal seizures, and probably what led to humans inventing gods.
5
Wow!
The closest I have come, which led to vertigo, dizziness, and general feeling of misery eventually, was the use of q-tips. The stimulation of nerve endings in the ear canal was one such tingly thing.
Other than that, nothing.
I think the tingling I have now is second order; FOMO of ASMR.
The writer implies that author pay journals are subpar. Many author pay journals, or open access journals, and quite legitimate and publish sound scholarship. It depends greatly on the individual publication, not a class of journals.
1
@Joyce Ogburn
It is widely accepted, especially in academia, journalism and across research fields, that author-pay journals are "subpar." In fact, they are often predatory: academics get duped into contributing (at a cost) to journals with no peer review or editing process. Also, just because they are found online or on Google does not mean they have met any standards: "Google Scholar does not vet the journals it indexes."
Please see:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/30/science/predatory-journals-academics.html
2
@GiGi
Nicely said, Gigi. Google scholarship is an oxymoron.
@GiGi
This is not correct, Gigi. I do realize there are scams and that predatory journals are a real problem. But there are also legitimate, even prestigious open access journals that charge author fees. Like PLos One.
I wasn't aware of these videos, but the feeling described sounds like the awakening to spiriituality in ancient disciplines such as Yoga and Buddhism, also the mystical aspects of other religions.
2
It seems we all experience these feelings and our triggers are highly variable. We have to allow ourselves to enjoy life, the moment in time when we may feel bliss for being alive. I’m curious of the neuro biology that gives us these feelings.
2
I’ve encountered this my entire life. The triggers have changed over time. To the amazement and possibly the envy of family and friends, I experience a profound sense of relaxation and well-being when getting my teeth cleaned at the dentist office. A couple of times to the point of nodding off.
7
Two things came to mind when I read this fascinating article:
1: the experience of flow, as popularized by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
2: a sort of very minor autism, like staring at a ceiling fan going around and around
Just thoughts. No experience. Good luck in your endeavors!
2
I call what happens to me zen. I have studied zen for 50 years.
Getting into a flow, where time stops.
As a young child I found it while reading at 4 am in the sleeping house, sitting on a heat source with the dog.
Then it slipped away, especially when surrounded by quarrelsome people, such as family and my ever changing schools. We moved a lot.
Riding a bicycle at night in a dark forest gave it to me. Then motorbike riding long distances alone.
Now it comes to me in my photography Darkroom while processing film and enlarging prints.
Reading NYT on my computer does not induce it.
I will watch ASMR videos today on a monitor, my cell phone did not trigger what I like earlier this morning.
5
Not surprised that this is coming to fruition in this digital age where we are connected but only digitally.
2
This article definitely rang a bell for me. I have often experienced this sensation when reading a poem. I also experienced it regularlyWhen my cat snuggled with me and purred.
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@Martha L. Miller I know nothing about ASMR but when I read your remark about sensing it while reading a poem I connected immediately. Often when reading a book, and only in a quiet location and alone, I will feel this brain tingle, a fleeting buzz. Nice but also concerning because it feels so unnatural. My wife thought I was having a mini-stroke. Argh!
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When I was old enough (fourteen or so), I started looking into the reason I experienced what someone below refers to as full-body-shivers. It is an overwhelming tingling, electric deluge that washes over the entire body and consumes attention for only a couple of seconds–fifteen or twenty seconds maybe. My quest for an explanation lead me to learn as much as I could about epilepsy. While these full-body-shivers are not by any means the seizures experienced by people with epilepsy, they seem to have more in common than not. The question is whether the shivers are a feature or a defect.
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I've experienced the tingles since I was a teenager. I always thought of them as "good, good vibrations" (thanks BeachBoys).
I can pretty much summon the feeling up anytime I want as long as I'm calm. Music and nature bring them on strong. If a sunrise and the chorus section of The Ninth won't give them to you try any number of passages from Shakespeare, if still no, hug a puppy. Still no? You're dead.
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This makes my heart sing. This puts a name to something I have described to friends for decades. I would describe it as “being able to feel someone else think” and am triggered by the concentration of others. I am a 42 year old male. I experience it less as I age, but am optimistic that I can experience as I watch my children grow.
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@Adam Griffith It took me a long and wordy time in my comment to try and describe my specific experience of A.S.M.R.. Just thought you should know that in your short post you nailed it.
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Wow. My childhood was less than nurturing and I found a way to trigger this, warm, tingly and “nurtured” feeling. I would trigger it several times a day, particularly when I was stressed. I was no more than 7 yrs old when I discovered it. Have not triggered it for decades now and had completely forgotten about it. As a teen I was curious about this phenomenon , but could never find any information. Perhaps this could be used to reduce PTSD and anxiety related disorders.
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@xxx How did you trigger it?
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@Someone I would trigger it by playing with my hair in a particular way. Would take about 30 seconds to trigger the feeling in my head. I tried it today and it didn’t work anymore. Almost, but not quite.
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I clearly remember experiencing this as a young child, maybe about four or five years old, when I had the realization that I was a person. At first it only happened in a particular location -when I was standing in the doorway between my kitchen and dining room. There were other things going on in the house and perhaps my mother was there making dinner but not looking at me. It was a singular feeling of awareness and I could cause it again and again, but only in quiet solitary moments. It was a profound realization and I've had the sensation since when thinking about connections to the universe and the vastness of emotions and events that are all around us. I would love to know if there is a scientific explanation.
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@NMT I had a similar sensation a few times when I was in my 20s, walking through crowded, hot streets in NYC. A tingling in my head that traveled down through my spin and into my body, combined with an intense sense of dissolving into everything and everyone around me. It was a wonderful feeling.
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I so totally know this exact sensation. Really glad to see that it's an actual 'thing.' It occurs so reliably whenever I get a haircut that I look forward to its happening with pleasurable anticipation. Nice too, since I'm 75 and have had one whale of a lot of haircuts! Hope I get to have a lot more; unfortunately, I have less hair now and it seems to grow more slowly... sigh.
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Growing up my sister had many of her dresses made by a friend of our mother’s who was an excellent dressmaker. She reports having the feeling when the dressmaker would measure her- and that it was a very pleasant feeling that came with tingling in her arms.
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I'm an over 60 male. I remember getting these quite often as a child / young teen. The primary trigger was having my work reviewed by an older person, mostly in a private or semi-private situation, where I was waiting / watching my work (school work, fixing stuff, etc) being reviewed, I usually at the elbow of the reviewer.
After 25 or see these became isolated events, with more random triggers - likely less than 5 times in the last 35 years. Or so it seems.
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This article describes something called "piti" in the Pali language. Piti commonly arises in meditation when one is paying close attention to experience and then becomes very interested in it.
Piti can take many forms, and include feelings of warmth, tingling, vibrating, radiating, pulsing.
This new "mystery" is actually not a mystery at all.
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@Saddha: I think you mean to say that this "mystery" is not new. But it is still a mystery.
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The faint smile on representations of the Buddha signifies the subtle pleasure of piti.
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I call these experiences FBS (full body shivers) because my entire structure, starting with my scalp, tingles and shakes internally. I couldn't even read this article without having the response, and I started watching the video but it was too intense (I'm at work!) to watch past 30 seconds. I'm going to be coming back to this piece again and again.
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I feel these sensations frequently, but almost always intensely when I meditate.
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@Danny Dougherty
You are absolutely on it Mr. Dougherty. It is a connection to what one might describe as "god" but larger. It is our connection to wholeness, the universe, all knowing everything without ever knowing why, and more. We are connected to everything that lives or has lived. All the answers are available to us by listening to that which is greater than the part. It is not religious - it is the spiritual within each and every living thing.
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I am 70 and I have called this “joy” for as long as I can remember. It’s usually associated to music, always unexpected and always welcome.
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@Green Pen Music is the trigger for me also; primarily large, grandiose pieces at their height or at a major transition point.
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@Green Pen Yes, its a warm feeling of joy and happiness. The heck with ASMR. Cuddling a kitten or puppy makes me feel the same thing too.
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I have been wondering about this since I first experienced it at age of 6 or 7, in response to a haircut or my mother rubbing my head. It has happened rarely since, but is a most distinctive and pleasurable feeling, as if a wave of warm oxytocin descends from the crown of one's head and propagates through the trunk. Thank you for giving it name.
PS: I am an old man, not a young woman!
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@JBR
Thank you old man! That is exactly how I would describe these same wonderful feelings I have been getting since I was a child.
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Like almost any other brain function, this one may be plastic, in the sense that it is something that adjusts to circumstances or responds to training and conditioning. In our era of social disconnectedness and isolation from touch (grooming, intimacy, etc), maybe ASMR is a heightened sensation/experience that is like how a person’s hearing is enhanced in a quiet environment. It seems sad that while we can identify this experience as pleasurable (for those who seem to be able to turn it), what we really crave is simple intimacy, time, loving and touch. It breaks my heart to imagine people listening to You Tube to relax instead of snuggling with a loved one. I guess heating up a Hot Pocket in the microwave is eating, but it’s not a gourmet feast.
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For those of us who experience ASMR and also have intimate partners to snuggle with, it’s not the same sensation, and one is not a replacement for the other. So it’s less heating up a hot pocket instead of attending a feast, but more choosing to eat at a different banquet
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@Rob Merrill I think ASMR is a phenomenon that overlaps with social connectedness but also has features that are purely sensory, like kinesthesia. To me, the sensory component seems the opposite of autism, where kids can find certain stimuli adversive and over stimulating in a negative way.
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I don't experience the tingles, but I do experience the relaxation. I use ASMR videos to help me sleep, and they're remarkably effective. Not only that, but they're free (well, internet service costs), safe (as far as I know) and lacking the side effects of drugs.
I mostly watch just a couple of women, but there is one man whose videos I enjoy. I think the pleasure and relaxation derive from the calm and gentleness these people project. And whether it's a social construct or hard-wired, women are allowed to be gentle in ways that men often are not. This is unfortunate, because I've known several extremely gentle men who were also brave, effective and strong, qualities many people don't equate with gentleness.
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Wonderful article. I have felt this throughout my life (I’m over 40) and never had a name for it or even thought much about it. But I knew what this was article was getting at as soon as I was a few paragraphs in. The videos and images totally give me one. Before watching, I never connected cause and effect, but now I can see it’s the sensory experience of delicateness and intimacy that triggers a brain reaction. Delicate grooming for instance.
To those who don’t get it, I’d describe it more like a migrating “chill” starting in your neck that doesn't actually make you shake and is more warm and pleasurable.
Eventually, scientists will put people under an MRI as they are experiencing this. That will be interesting..
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Thank you so much for writing this. I have had “ASMR” since childhood. I never knew what to call it, or if other people had this. I giggled my way through this entire article with warm memories of the sensation. For me, I feel like this happened more frequently in childhood and less often in adulthood. Whispers and voices were definitely a trigger, but it would also happen often when a teacher sat next to me and helped me with my schoolwork. I always thought the sensation was related to being paid attention to, or had something to do with the interpersonal. Again, thank you for writing this. Your descriptions of the experience are spot on. I am going to have to read more about this.
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When I heard the term "a warm fuzzy" many years ago, it seemed to fit the feeling perfectly. I experience it when people are kind and attentive, particularly when it is unexpected.
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Trump and now ASMR.... The power of suggestion is well, powerful.
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I do energy work on animals...mostly horses...I have a similar, maybe same, feeling when I prepare to work on them. I meditate for a bit, then reach out and feel what I have always felt was a connection with the horse and the earth run down my body. I feel serene and calm. it lasts through the session.
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from Dave's wife, Kim: ASMR has proven to be a "life-saver" for me. I have searched YouTube and have discovered countless offerings. My favorite is Gentle Whispering. Russian accents have always produced that "odd" sensation I could not name. I disagree with the writer's take on the preponderance of female versus male A.S.M.R. artists. The vocal range is quite important. Lower pitched voices do not produce the same sensation, at least for me. I have severe restless leg syndrome, a debilitating sleep disorder. Although watching ASMR videos has not cured me, the videos are part of my arsenal of medicines and alternative therapies. Maria from Gentle Whispering has greatly improved my sleep. I am so grateful others have come together to create the ASMR community.
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In Dominican Republic is called “teriquito”
Is like a a little shake inside that makes you feel very content for a few seconds. It can be come up at any time with or without triggers and it is not uncommon here for people to say that such and such thing gives me “teriquito” or “terikito” sake pronunciation.
It can also come in a bad form when seeing “repulsive” things like a tangle of snakes or worms. It’s is like you feel that the snakes or worms all over your skin.
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There. At least one culture has a word for it. Why the big deal, people get goose-bumps sometimes too. I don’t need a scientific answer for everything, there are much more pressing scientific issues especially these days with a administration in DC that is trying to defund everything.
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@YSABEL
I like your description, Ysabel. Decades ago, in my thirties, I would experience feelings of both euphoria and contentment, and could never identify a trigger, so I attributed it to hormonal changes. Even during stressful periods of my life--unemployed and dealing with debt--I would sometimes feel an upwelling of these sensations of contentment that lasted for up to 15 minutes. I miss that.
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I am a 55 year old woman, and I’ve had ASMR “tingles” since at least the age of six — though I had no term for the sensation until about 2012. Certain gentle voices, like Bob Ross, or even reading particular passages can be stimulating but calming. I cannot speak for others, but I take nothing sexual from the video artists I watch (almost exclusively women). Connection and feeling “seen” if only somatically by the ASMR artists and community is also part of my enjoyment.
Writing skeptically with a somewhat prurient bias about a sensation you do not, or cannot allow yourself, to experience is not a good representation of the phenomenon or the community.
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I watch/listen to ASMR just about every night to put me to sleep. My favorite is ASMR Magic, whose "50+ triggers over three hours" video is linked in this article. That particular video has over 45 million views. For me, the tingles start at the top of my head, down my neck and back. The tingles are mild, pleasant and relaxes the body and quiets the mind. Most ASMR viewers/listeners use the videos for sleep issues, but there are some that are overtly sexual. These are not true ASMR and should not be included in the same category.
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I wish my ASMR was triggered by Youtube videos. I would never leave the house. Mine is set off by having my hair brushed, or certain neck touches, or sometimes certain people's mannerisms. It's very cool. Hard to describe it to people because they automatically think it's something sexual, which it isn't.
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Don't I know! When brushed, my cat gets the same feeling and always wants more. A.S.M.R.
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@lostinspacey
Agreed. I'm 58 and have had these sensations since I was a child. I was so excited when I found out that people were making videos but alas, they do nothing....has to be live and in person. My triggers are hair brushing and someone turning the pages of a magazine. I also think that most people have no idea what this is and confuse it with just feeling relaxed or a little mesmerized.
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ASMR doesn't seem to do anything for me, but I do get serious goose bumps when I listen to particularly stirring music. For me, as one example, the goose bumps are dependably in place by 5:47 in this Wagner recording:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVpRhP8PkqE
but people who experience this phenomena all have their own unique music triggers.
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@Madeline Conant Excellent description! Summarizing comments, the descriptions of goose bumps, tingles, and shivers seem to fit best; I also like the term "teriquito" in Spanish. Crescendo music is my biggest trigger also.
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I can attest to the similarity of the music “chills” and the asmr response, as I experience both. For me they are closely related sensations, but not quite the same. The ones related to soft noises, touches, and close personal attention originate at the crown of the head or nape of the neck and spread. The music-induced sensation seems to have a more diffuse origin, and involves more the arms and back... less sensation but much more emotion. I’m grateful for both these experiences. By the way, my first recollection of the asmr response was in perhaps second grade while my hair was being combed through by the school nurse during the routine scheduled lice screening. Both the tactile sensation as well as the quiet, crisp noise of the thin wooden sticks being broken were wonderful to me and I looked forward to it. I mention this to note that it was an age and a situation far removed from any sexual context.
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I’ve had something like that, and it also has a feeling of when I eat something (Chinese takeout or likewise) that has high salt or sodium content (love that MonoSodiumGlut!); feels like my scalp is crawling… I thought it was from now body‘s reaction to the sodium… And a wave of relief/concern comes over me
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I knew about this when I was a kid. Certian teachers voices when they would read in a soft voice. Seeing someone measured for a suit. Eye exams, and accents. Russian, northern european, some french. My triggers are normally whisper/softspoken and slight or easy touching. It has helped me sleep. I hope research can find ways to identify triggers more clearly. I also have suffered from "tingle tolerance". It is when a trigger stops working for you. If you watch a differnt type of trigger video for a few weeks, it normally comes back.
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I’m actually going through a bit of a tingle immunity at the moment. I tend to listen at work in the mid-afternoon to come off the coffee rush of the day. I really need to avoid my personal triggers (mostly soft-spoken) long enough to regain the effect. But yeah, I’ve known this sensation since I was a kid but just assumed everyone experienced it. Discovering ASMR several years ago simultaneously gave a sense of being different but also of community, as weird as that sounds.
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I'm a 70 year old male. I have this feeling frequently brought on by any number of stimuli. I have always associated it with "the chills", similar feeling but overwhelmingly positive.
Thank you ms Keiles for shedding some light on it it Your article gives me those same tingles.
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Who knew?....great article and really good writing....I can’t help but wonder if the strong but hard to quantify attachment so many toddlers have to “Goodnight Moon”, or Mr. Rodgers perhaps, isn’t tied at some level to the A.S.M.R. Experience....also, I am not convinced this is necessarily female predominant...more research and more exposure to the public in general might shed new light.
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@Mugsy777
I watched an old clip of Mr. Rodgers on tv and it was almost like a religious experience. Years ago I watched it with my kids and appreciated it but not in such a deep way.
He was such a good person (soul) attempting to spread positivity in a world so much in need of it.
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@Mugsy777 You're probably right about the gender distribution. Females in our culture have been socialized to notice bodily sensations more, that's all.
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@Mugsy777 The scene in which Mr. rogers testified before Congress has that effect on me. An awesome testimony--in the true sense of the word.
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I am a 38 year old female who loves amsr, and I find this article strangely prejudiced. Why all the focus on whether or not it's "normal," or whether or not it's sexual? I never had even thought it might not be normal, but this article has a strongly stigmatizing tone. My favorite ASMR artist is a young female in her twenties, but that doesn't make me a pervert. in fact, how many people even use the word pervert anymore? I saw it several times in this article. Please! That seems to reflect nothing more than the author's personal discomfort and prejudices.
Also this quote, "All these YouTube users may be right that the feeling is real, but the scientific research still lags far behind." Really? Millions of people who say they feel a strong sensation in their bodies only "may" be right that they actually feel what they say they are feeling?
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I don’t think the author is contending if the sensation people feel is real or not, I think they’re saying that there hasn’t been much formal study. To the point that someone simply made up a term for it and put it on the internet. But the the truth is that we don’t have a scientific explanation why some of us experience it and others don’t. Or why you can become numb to it over time. Or what’s firing the pseudo-physical response from watching a video that contains no actual physical contact. I’m really hoping more research gets funded in the years to come.
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@HLN thank you for that comment. In addition to your impressions, I was also perplexed by the characterization of ASMR being almost entirely female-dominated. My favorite ASMR artist is a young Australian man, but I also regularly listen to a few female artists. Considering that I’m a gay man, I really don’t think that there’s any sexual element to the ASMR triggers. I can see how someone who doesn’t experience it would think that perhaps that’s not the case, though.
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@Johan I agree I'd love to have more research on it, and what you said makes complete sense--more sense than the actual wording of the article. The author actually did say "may be right that the feeling is real." Whether the author meant to or not, that statement does in fact imply that what people say they feel may not be real. Also, at least from what I have read, we don't have a complete scientific explanation for why people feel ticklish, some more than others, what causes certain types of pain etc. Lack of scientific explanation is the default state for all physical sensations, i.e. we start by feeling something and naming our feeling, and only later do scientists figure out the mechanisms and give it a technical name. No sensation starts by scientists researching it and later people starting to feel it.
That being said, what really annoys me is the author's repeated use of the word pervert. Even if people do get sexual pleasure from ASMR (which I doubt--why not just watch porn?) why would that have to be stigmatized as a perversion? I'm disappointed in the NYT for publishing an article with this tone.
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Have to admit that I just don’t get it. More like fingernails on the chalkboard.
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