ASMR - I thought everybody had this!

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For one thing, it wasn't a "good feeling", it was a synthetic/AMDR-like sensation. My emotions could be described as "disgust", and "pity", but I also had that sensation in my arms. That made me realize that the sensation was probably neurological in nature.

I'm not perfectly sure if this AMSR is what I experience. I have never heard of this name before.

I like the eye exam one. I like the sound of her voice and the sound of the writing on paper she does. It might sometimes be too much of a whisper voice though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... yoclgCRsbk

EVen though it makes me uncomfortable to go to exams and things like that it can end up feeling sort of good. I can get a good feeling from experiences like that if I don't have to talk very much and just answer factual type of questions and the person has a calming voice. And even the pen and paper type of sounds I like that comes with it. I think it's possible a guy could do it for me but I think it's women mostly that will.

There was this lady who had an Irish accent and I felt so good when she talked. I just loved it when I could hear her talk. I was not interested in what she was saying but how she sounded.

In the last few weeks I thought of the idea of trying to find a soundtrack of someone talking like that Irish lady because I like it feels. I don't even care what it said. I think I may like the exam type ones better.

Also, even though I don't like going to the grocery store there was this time when not as much people were there. This Cindy Lauper song came on and I could feel it all over my body. I was going to try and describe how it feels but it might sound kind of creepy. But it's not creepy. I do this with certain songs all the time.

Also, I can get a really good feeling when sound goes from one speaker to the other side. This is best with headphones on. Does this have a name? I thought of trying to find recorded sounds that have this too. I have heard it in some songs.

I totally get this. Especially with the low music in the background and the glimpses of a game with pretty flickering colourful lights in it, :lol which I am under no pressure at all to understand either ...

[ NB. I'm just reposting/cp the following from another ASMR thread I just posted on because this one has much more data already on it. ]

I have experienced this on several occasions since childhood, always "accidentally", and have just this week become interested in it ( after reading an article about it in the context of online therapy work/opportunities ) and discovering that not everyone gets it, but that it can be deliberately triggered in those who do, and that it is perhaps connected with Sensory Integration Differences/dysfunction, and/or hypersensitivity to close-up sound, touch, visuals etc.

Some ASMR videos that I like to a greater or lesser degree, which effectively trigger drowsiness, heaviness/lightness, a very relaxed state, and the delicious tingling/prickling/melting feelings around scalp and down the spine, etc, for *me* anyway, are:

[Youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W96a_WAQeNk&list=TLHTCSi9gkaTQmMTkE5OcBPYXJ2hSmwdHp[/Youtube]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83txjXCcffw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8vZwYtMBrY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCx3ujeg7FE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh6tr5uZodY#t=247

"Tastes" vary. :lol

And some of the more useful articles/websites/blogs that I have found on the subject:

http://www.vice.com/read/asmr-the-good- ... an-explain

http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/11/18/the ... -them-too/

http://thehairpin.com/2013/05/something ... st-for-you

http://www.gizmag.com/asmr-free-tingles ... sts/27667/

http://www.salon.com/2013/11/14/could_b ... n_partner/

Last edited by ouinon on 21 Nov 2013, 9:59 am, edited 2 times in total.

Yes. I get these. They are most reliably triggered by eye exams--I wear glasses--and hair appointments. My cat rubbing against me causes this, too. Going to the dentist on the other hand doesn't really produce these sensations at all. I've had them since childhood.

You describe frisson, a feeling you get from listening to powerful music. The feeling is distinct from ASMR.

AHHHH thank you for bumping so I actually saw this!! !

I never, ever knew what to call this, or figured that it happened to anyone else with any sort of frequency. It happens to me rarely, less than a dozen times a year I bet. The video almost makes me experience it...I have a feeling that I wouldn't have felt it unless I'd just been reminded of it while watching it.

I distinctly remember the first time I experienced it. I was in grade 2 or 3 and I was uncharacteristically having major problems doing a subtraction or a long division. So I actually raised my hand and asked for help. There was a substitute teacher, a man, and he was being all whispery quiet and speaking directly to me right in my ear and...man! I don't think he managed to help me at all as I couldn't concentrate a word on what he was saying. Also at that age I was a tad worried it was sexual because I'd never experienced it before and it was a man who caused it. I now don't see it as sexual at all. I sorta sat there in a mesmerized state for the next 10 minutes or something.

Funny someone mentioned the eye exam, because I think I get that often when I have an eye exam too. But not very strongly. I'm pretty sure just any optometrist wouldn't cause me to feel that though.

To me there are definitely levels of this, the weakest experience of it I would call akin to frisson from music. The physical sensation, the 'bubbles' as the article describes it, is like having goosebumps, except they're limited to the head. There's an additional emotional component to it too though, like it's utter relaxation or something. Always very pleasant. I have to imagine some drug or something can elicit a similar feeling. (I kinda thought marijuana would, but it doesn't, at least not for me.)

Most of the time I'm not quite sure what sets it off. Hmm, but thinking about it now, watching someone slowly and methodically put away a board game (that's what my husband does)can elicit it. It doesn't always happen though. I think perhaps the sound those plastic baggies that game pieces are put in set it off.
I don't think I've ever experienced it if I'm not stationary, sitting down.

As for it being linked to synesthesia, I don't have that at all in any degree. A lot of people I talk to will apply colors to things that don't have colors, but this has never, ever happened to me. Neither that or mixing up other sensations.

I've experienced this too.

I don't have synesthesia at all either, that I'm aware of anyway.

There is some evidence or at least a plausible hypothesis that ASMR is linked with Sensory Integration or Sensory Processing Disorders/Dysfunctions/Differences, which are often found in/a comorbid for people on the Autism Spectrum.

The information on the Wikipedia page for SID/SPD does sort of fit with that, particularly the hypo and hyper reactions to sensory information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensory_pr ... g_disorder .

I am intrigued by the "close-up" aspect of it, not only the way that someone's hands or face or voice very close to oneself/head ( in "safe" situations? ) seem to be a trigger for many, but also how someone speaking slowly or calmly about something complex but unstressful while engaging in slow calm hand movements/gestures relating to that complex but unstressful subject matter seems to make that person or set of actions "appear"/feel closer, as if seen with a zoom lens, as if have zoomed in on them/it, a dreamy total focus/concentrated attention to a very small area or event.

My mother says that as a baby I almost always pushed her away when she held me ... Might it be that my processing of "close up" data is "set" so that movements and sounds within a certain short distance are magnified *dis*proportionately compared to the same signals at a greater distance ... and the other side of the coin, anything which I focus fully on seems very close up ... and a feature of all these Youtube videos is how incredibly/abnormally close up the person(s) and sounds are, in a by definition "safe" situation, because not actually physically present.

Perhaps this is the previously overlooked upside of exhausting/irritating/unpleasant hypersensitivity to things like scratchy labels in clothing, snoring, icky gloopy substances on plates which need washing etc, tapping of rainwater somewhere/on something, over-insistent clock-ticking, vehicle-reversing-beeping, flickery flourescent lights, a whole range of types of voices and accents, the almost inaudible but somehow penetrating sound of chat-show bla-blah on a TV in the house/room next door, etc ... ... ... unless of course there are some people with those sort of hypersensitivities who never experience ASMR.
.

Last edited by ouinon on 21 Nov 2013, 9:39 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm not sure if what I experience is ASMR or not. I don't get the feeling from that video at all (as other have said, it made me feel kind of uncomfortable so I turned it off after just a minute or two), and I've never experienced any sort of sensations with any other people talking or whispering. However, when I hear crystal bowls being played, I get a very strange feeling. It's like my brain synchs up with the sound and I get tingles up and down my spine, arms, and legs. It's quite pleasant. Is that ASMR?

I had no idea there was a name for this! I thought everyone experienced these sensations. I told my best friend about it just after reading this and she replied "Me too!"

I wonder how common this is.

Last edited by jetbuilder on 21 Nov 2013, 1:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.

What kind of song is crystal bowls?

It's not a song. Crystal bowls are a type of instrument, I guess. I think they also call them singing bowls, or that might be something slightly different. They're mostly used in meditation. I first heard them in a philosophy class when the teacher insisted we meditate or at least try to sit quietly for a few minutes of each class. You can find videos/recordings of them on youtube (I only like the ones that are the sounds of the bowls without any chanting or other instruments).

I find these videos very creepy and a bit scary. However, I love when when people speak softly to me especially people I trust deeply. That really relaxes me. I think these videos were creepy to me because I could hear the lip smacking which is very irritating and a sound I can't tolerate. Also the sensual aspect reminded me of sexuality. I think if it were less "sensual" in a sexual reminding sort of way, and without the lip smacking, I would find it very comforting.

I can think of many many sounds that drive me crazy and make me feel extremely irritated or anxious, such as crinkling papers, tapping on something, anyone chewing, lip smacking, papers rustling, etc. but I can't think of any particular sounds that give me a good feeling (besides music of course). So I guess I don't have this.

The sound of rain and especially thunder has a cathartic effect on me;
Aristotle decribed "catharsis" as being the sudden purging of (negative) emotions; that's exactly what I feel during a storm.
There is a site called RainyMood which add those kind of sounds to any music.
Whispers tend to irritate me though. Whispers have a "retroaffective" effect, the baby and the mother. Some people like that. Personally I perceive whispers as if the person looked down on me or is being condescending.

The sound of storm, I believe is due to the fact we live very artificial urban lives, and the sound of thunder reminds us of the power of nature, and the littleness of the world we are living in; it puts things into perspective on a subconscious level, it's empowering.

Basically I'd describe the effect on me as "catharsis".

The sounds of rain and thunder make me feel really good. I crave those sounds actually as well as those of ocean waves and brooks. Campfire noises and smells make me feel really good too. I like nature sounds and I can spend hours listening to them and they really relax me but I don't think that is the same thing as the effect these videos have on people.