ASMR - That Tingly Feeling In Your Brain [Plus Favorite Videos]

When I was a kid I used to get these intense, tingly feelings up my back and spine, oftentimes when someone stood behind me speaking or they had a particularly -effective- kind of voice. (Particularly a heavy accent or a cheery, charismatic woman's voice) I called them "Little ghosts", because the feeling was so strange and ephemeral, as if a ghost was tapping on my spine. I didn't even know what to call the phenomenon and thought I was the only one who experienced it. As an adult I started listening to youtube videos - usually clothing or perfume hauls - as a way to soothe myself and calm my anxiety, because I found the people speaking relaxing. Only by accident did I stumble upon an ASMR video of a woman opening a cardboard box full of perfumes. and subsequently fell into the world of purposefully tingle-inducing sounds.

It was like joining a secret club - one in which the strange, ghost-like sensations I experienced were shared by others. And not only that, dissected, recreated, and filmed. ASMR is now a huge category on Youtube, and consists of a wide variety of people creating different sounds - Think of foley artists who's intention is to create a tingling stimulus in your brain.

ASMR stands for autonomous sensory meridian response, which is an unscientific term for what appears to be a very real phenomenon - it's often likened to a "braingasm" because the feeling of tingles can be so overwhelming. However ASMR is not a sexual feeling, it's not pleasurable as much as purely stimulating. Imagine someone running their fingers alongside the spine, or like the goosebumps produced by fission. (Another similar phenomenon) Not everyone experiences ASMR, but the sensation must be common enough to have such an overwhelming amount of youtube videos on the subject. People who make ASMR videos are called "ASMRtists", and people like GentleWhispering have a million subscribers.

ASMR seems to be triggered by a combination of intimacy (Someone leaning in close, or personal attention) and heavy, concentrated noise - like chalkboard drawings, close-up breathing, or water droplets. Someone who stumbles upon an ASMR video may think they've just found a weird fetish - there are "Pure audio" videos, and there are also roleplay videos - which consists of people trying to recreate that feeling of ASMR that many people felt in the real world. ASMR often seems to be triggered by teachers, doctors, and hair stylists. There are also elaborate ASMR stories involving witches, scientists, psychics, and. If you can imagine it, someone has probably made an ASMR video about it. ASMR videos are usually made so that the youtuber speaks directly to the camera, as if actually addressing you.

I use ASMR to relax and help me go to sleep. It is a great anxiety aid. It can help when you want to feel intimacy or experience with other human beings without necessarily going through the work of having to interact with a real person.

Here are some of my favorite videos:

Some of my favorite triggers are hairplay and styling and FaeryChar has an amazing sound setup. You can hear the intricacies of everything going on.

EphemeralRift is one of those youtubers that has turned ASMR into an artform. He's created a whole cast of crazy Lovecraftian characters, and has made hundreds of videos - from videos where he sits back and eats pizza with the viewer (Similar to a mukbang video), or like this one, where he fixes you, the viewer, who takes on the role of a robot in the shop.

This is a rather simple, low-tech video, but the woman in the video has a soothing voice and it's rare to see a dusting video. ASMR is not always better just because the tech (Lighting, set, effects) is better. Some ASMRtists have actually started making "Old school" style ASMR videos on their iphones, moving away from their more expensive equipment. It's all about the effect, the noises, and your own personal preferences.

KiKi is a bilingual ASMRtist who excels at creating anxiety videos that are great when you're having a severe anxiety attack.

A pure soundscape video of "Crispy" tingles. Sometimes it's nice to have a video with no voice, so you can focus on nothing except the sounds produced.

CosmicTingles is another favorite of many people. Here is an X-Files inspired video.

Many people may not like ASMR, and for many years I was embarrassed because it felt like a weird fetish, something that nobody would understand. However, millions of people watch ASMR. It's just another way to relax, finding ways that humans work in quirky and idiosyncratic ways and hacking them for our enjoyment.

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Stock photo from Pixabay

Other posts you may be interested in:
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Doki Doki Literature Club [Game Review]
What Remains of Edith Finch [Game Review]
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>observer_ , a descent into the hell of the mind [Game Review]