• We have updated the guidelines regarding posting political content: please see the stickied thread on Website Issues.

ASMR: The 'Unnamed Feeling'

Saw an allegedly ASMR-friendly video recommended on Reddit which features a man eating noisily. Can't see how that works, especially if I was there and was forced to slap the food out of his hand and yes, his very mouth.
 
Moth Twiceborn said:
I don't normally get ASMR, but the first time I heard this, the top of my head came off when she started singing.
Click to expand...
When talking about frisson inducing songs, this specific live recording by Sia, takes you all the way.

 
I have ASMR but mine seems very specific. I don't get the 'whispering' thing or the nails but I do get it from videos of massages or being massaged myself or head rubs. I wonder if growing older has an effect on it - I used to get a feeling of elation too from all sorts of things, certain words, sounds etc.

I also wonder about the link to synaesthesia (which I also have but have largely grown out of (or away from).
 
On MUBI right now there's the new Peter Strickland short film called Cold Meridian, which is simultaneously a celebration of and mickey take of ASMR. Didn't work on me, but his latest feature In Fabric was made with ASMR in mind as well, and has its fans in the "online community".
 
My ASMR is mostly from watching people undertaking meticulous work and may stem from early childhood and watching my artist father at work. There were was a BBC documentary in which a man made a glass bottle from scratch without speech and it was a major trigger for me.

An odd was was an old-fashioned dry cleaners where the elderly lady had a wooden pole to select and bring down items for collection from a high rail, which she did with great care...?! Even the smell of a dry cleaners sets me off. Love watching Gonstead chiropractor videos in which they run the special instrument down the spine of the patient, too.
 
I've just been watching some ASMR videos and it's prompted me to ask - why do you think that people who enjoy ASMR, don't all like and aren't all triggered into sensations by the same thing?

For example, I love the silent, head massage videos. Can't bear whispering, nail scratching, eating or any of those. But watching someone have a head massage or a back massage gives me the tingles. But why? Why, if we are susceptible to this, do we each have particular things which trigger ASMR and why isn't it universal?
 
catseye said:
I've just been watching some ASMR videos and it's prompted me to ask - why do you think that people who enjoy ASMR, don't all like and aren't all triggered into sensations by the same thing?

For example, I love the silent, head massage videos. Can't bear whispering, nail scratching, eating or any of those. But watching someone have a head massage or a back massage gives me the tingles. But why? Why, if we are susceptible to this, do we each have particular things which trigger ASMR and why isn't it universal?
Click to expand...

My theory (ahem!)

Humans seem to have different sensory wiring, for example autistics tend to be at one end or the other of various sensory axes. So this comes from observing and enjoying autistics :D

It's just like any of the usual 5 senses - I love spice and chilli, my MiL can't abide it and cooks with herbs. I like Brahms, she likes Beethoven.

So whatever ASMR is, there are naturally different triggers. Any use @catseye ?
 
Paul_Exeter said:
My ASMR is mostly from watching people undertaking meticulous work and may stem from early childhood and watching my artist father at work. There were was a BBC documentary in which a man made a glass bottle from scratch without speech and it was a major trigger for me.

An odd was was an old-fashioned dry cleaners where the elderly lady had a wooden pole to select and bring down items for collection from a high rail, which she did with great care...?! Even the smell of a dry cleaners sets me off. Love watching Gonstead chiropractor videos in which they run the special instrument down the spine of the patient, too.
Click to expand...
A fan of Dr Rahim, perchance. I agree; it is rather relaxing.
 
Frideswide said:
My theory (ahem!)

Humans seem to have different sensory wiring, for example autistics tend to be at one end or the other of various sensory axes. So this comes from observing and enjoying autistics :D

It's just like any of the usual 5 senses - I love spice and chilli, my MiL can't abide it and cooks with herbs. I like Brahms, she likes Beethoven.

So whatever ASMR is, there are naturally different triggers. Any use @catseye ?
Click to expand...
Thing with that, @Frideswide is that, accident or defect apart, we ALL have the usual senses. But there seems to be plenty of people who don't experience ASMR at all.

So why would this be? I can understand the liking for various types of ASMR stimuli if everyone experienced ASMR to some degree or other, like your example with the chilli. But this is more like some people who can't taste at all...
 
catseye said:
we ALL have the usual senses.
Click to expand...

hmmmmmmmmn I see... er........ um.....

Random thoughts: maybe they just haven't found their thing yet? or it's a genetic thing - neanderthal lineade increases likelihood or something? We can all move our tongue but only some of us can curl or roll it!
 
Frideswide said:
hmmmmmmmmn I see... er........ um.....

Random thoughts: maybe they just haven't found their thing yet? or it's a genetic thing - neanderthal lineade increases likelihood or something? We can all move our tongue but only some of us can curl or roll it!
Click to expand...
It would be great if someone would do some research. What links those who experience ASMR? Maybe it will turn out to be a gene somewhere. I like to think that it's a mutation of a telepathy gene (yes, all right, I know, I know).
 
I always have lots of theories about things, and 99.9% of them are wrong. :D However, I remain undaunted by bonkersness...

Anyway, here goes again: isn't a big factor in these preferences a favoured memory of childhood (even if an unconscious one)? That's a guess, admittedly, but it feels true for me.
 
I can recall a program on the radio when someone asked about ASMR and the scientist answered that there is a membrane around the brain that gets stimulated and contracts producing the tingling sensation in the head. No idea if this is correct, of course.
 
Benzie said:
I can recall a program on the radio when someone asked about ASMR and the scientist answered that there is a membrane around the brain that gets stimulated and contracts producing the tingling sensation in the head. No idea if this is correct, of course.
Click to expand...
Does that mean that people who don't get ASMR don't have this membrane? I must admit that I'm getting more and more fascinated by WHY some people just don't get it at all, and other people are rendered comatose just by watching someone else getting their hair washed. Is there any link to people with aphantasia - do they get ASMR or not? Quick - straw poll!
 
catseye said:
Does that mean that people who don't get ASMR don't have this membrane? I must admit that I'm getting more and more fascinated by WHY some people just don't get it at all, and other people are rendered comatose just by watching someone else getting their hair washed. Is there any link to people with aphantasia - do they get ASMR or not? Quick - straw poll!
Click to expand...
I have aphantasia, and I get ASMR, not from whispering or watching people fold sheets though, I usually get it through music, but it can come from looking at art or a beautiful scene or animal.
 
catseye said:
Does that mean that people who don't get ASMR don't have this membrane? I must admit that I'm getting more and more fascinated by WHY some people just don't get it at all, and other people are rendered comatose just by watching someone else getting their hair washed. Is there any link to people with aphantasia - do they get ASMR or not? Quick - straw poll!
Click to expand...

Very rapid and unscientific poll from an autistic-majority group: 3 self reported aphantasics - 1 gets ASMR, one doesn't and one hadn't heard of it before and has gone off to have a think about it.

Ahhhhhh! cutting edge research, how I do love thee! :rollingw:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top