It is the same thing. I have had the same barber for 20 years, so I would never be so rude as to ask him to shut up and let me get into that zone. I always want to, though.
I used to get an ASMR when my SO kissed my ear or the back of my neck.
Unfortunately, it often seemed to trigger a migraine soon after. We don’t do that much anymore 
Man, I hate people who bump zombie threads. I just want to set them on fire. But, I see this thread was posted to just a few months ago, so I hope I can be excused from self-immolation here.
In post 26, I mentioned having started a thread a very long time ago, but being unable to find it. Well, I finally did find it. Here it is (July 6, 1999. Wow.). Due to a glitch, the user names got stripped out of that thread, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that I was the OP. You can see someone responding to me downthread (post 15).
The posts in that thread that I made (or at least I’m pretty sure I made) are posts number 1, 3, 9, 10, and 13. The posts not from me that really nail my personal experiences with ASMR are 11 and 15.
I usually murder thread bumpers, but I’ll let this slide. It makes me feel happier than a clam when I realize I’m not alone in something.
This guy’s channel is like ASMR paradise for me. It’s just some dude unboxing and reviewing products. It’s kind of the best thing ever.
I’ve tried videos on youtube for it and noticed next to nothing. The only thing that triggers it for me is having someone touch my hair (usually short hairs with a comb). Sometimes when I am getting haircuts I realize the pleasure I get from having someone comb and move my hair is worth the price alone even without the haircut as an added bonus. I’m such a slut.
I don’t know about this exactly, but similar to another post above, certain phrases in music, vocal or not, will bring a weird feeling and instant tears to my eyes–even if I HATE the music.
Um, and I also really, REALLY like to sneeze. Especially from sunlight. Possibly related. I figure it has something to do with triggering the parasympathetic mumble mumble…
As the OP, I officially have no objection to zombie bumps. Anyone else can get over it. 
Coincidentally, I just listened to a new youtube video by GentleWhispering (a Russian-American lady named Maria with a *really *soothing voice) last night after not doing anything ASMR-related for a few months. Tingles are back! It’s easy to get desensitized when I try to induce it too much, so I went awhile without it and it’s great again.
Ever since I was a young kid I noticed this odd good feeling that I got in my head if I put my forehead close to the corner of a wall or sharp object and closed my eyes. I have always wondered what it could be looking on the internet trying to figure out why it was happening. I learned about asmr. Then I tried some other triggers like soft music and things thay YouTube videos entailed. They also worked. As I was learning more about this odd and amazing feeling I could create I tried to close my eyes and almost meditate. I focused on the spot on my forehead that I feel the more of the tingles. At first I could hardly feel it. Then I kept doing it before bed a lot of nights just out of curiousity. For one it helps me get to sleep and it has gotten a lot stronger. I can concentrate on that point and get a full feeling that I would have to of used triggers for. I don’t know if anyone else has any of these things in common with my asmr experience but I don’t really tell anyone about it. I’ve tried explaining it to some of my friends and they just can’t get the same feeling.
I just got into this, and have started watching ASMR videos on YouTube before going to sleep. I watch them in bed, on an iPad, and I wear headphones to get the full binaural effect. I rarely experience the scalp tingling while watching these, though it’s something I have spontaneously experienced in the past.
The videos that have the most powerful effect, for me, are the ones with gentle whispering combined with some simulation of personal attention. The haircut videos (and there are LOTS of haircut ASMR videos) aren’t quite as effective simply because the sound effects aren’t enough; I need that tactile sensation of having my scalp touched.
The videos that do absolutely nothing for me are the ones depicting some kind of mundane task, like clipping coupons. I also have no reaction at all to Bob Ross videos (except to think, “huh, maybe I should take up painting”).
I’d be interested in hearing people’s recommendations on the best ASMR video producers. My current favorite on YouTube is VeniVidiVulpes, who has an amazing ability to keep her voice perfectly and consistently modulated throughout very long videos.
I am hoping ASMR will eventually free me of needing medications to get to sleep at night.
When I saw the “warm fuzzy feeling” post I thought it was going to be about ASMR. When I saw it was something totally different, I was going to do my own post about this, but did a search first and found this thread.
Anyway, I’ve gotten this pretty much my whole life, and I just recently found info about it on the internet, that it has a nice scientific-sounding name with the acronym “ASMR”, and that other people do get it! Like others I wondered if it was something everybody experienced or just me.
I get the feeling maybe once or twice a month, always at random, usually when somebody is talking or explaining something to me in a calm and friendly manner. I’ve never tried to make it happen and I don’t know if I could. So I guess that makes me “type B”. I briefly watched a couple of those trigger videos but they didn’t do anything for me- I just found them vaguely creepy. I think it needs to be actual live human interaction for me. Not necessarily in person; it’s happened to me when somebody was explaining something to me over the phone once or twice. Just live, and a real human interaction.
Interesting to hear it may be more prevalent with introverts. I would put myself in that group. The theory about it being a possible carryover from primate grooming makes sense- maybe it’s an evolutionary positive feedback loop kind of thing, to encourage social interaction.
They were talking about ASMR on Radio 4 this morning! There’s a link to it in this article on the BBC website.
Dammit, I wanted to be the first 
I’m 45. Its only in the last year that I learned that not everybody gets “head tingles”. Mine are mostly triggered by touch, someone playing with my hair, or especially using a nail or sharp pointed thing and dragging it across the bottom of my foot. I love getting pedicures because the tingles just make me feel so relaxed.
The sensation travels through my body similarly to those adrenaline jolts you get when you get a burst of fear. Its the same starting-at-the-head and moving down, but slower, and it makes me relaxed and content instead of tense like adrenaline. It comes in waves, too, that vary in intensity.
I’ve often wondered if the tingles come from some other hormone that’s being released, maybe oxytocin or something?
I discovered it when looking for some Zentangle vids on youtube. I wanted to shake the video person and tell her to speak up and stop rattling her box of pencils and JUST PICK ONE DAMMIT.
I don’t think it’s for me.
Aha - there’s a term for this!!! My mother always called it the S----- (insert last name beginning with “sh”) Shake, as apparently she and her family members experienced it.
I have yet to figure out any trigger, and I think it happens less as I age, though I had one just the other day. I wasn’t doing anything or watching anything especially pleasurable or relaxing or whatever, in fact I was just working on my laptop.
The literary character Anne of Green Gables frequently talked about getting thrills from nature scenes. I wonder if the author was recounting experiences with ASMR. Also, Anne doesn’t get laid until, like, book 5 I think, primarily because she spends a lot of time in denial over her own romantic feelings.
I think - after reading through this thread - that people use the ASMR Youtube videos in different ways. I discovered ASMR because I have long noticed that quiet, deliberate paper crinkling noises make me sleepy* and so (on the basis that everything is on the internet somewhere) I googled to see what I could find, and found ASMR videos.
I don’t get any kind of specific tingling or other sensation, I just find the audio of many ASMR tracks just generally sounds good in some undefinable way or makes me sleepy or helps concentration. I don’t even watch the video, I just listen to the audio.
What I’ve found is that:[ul]
[li]I don’t like any speaking in English because I find myself trying to follow the words which is distracting. Quiet talking or whispering in a language I don’t understand works well (there seems to be lots of good Russian ASMR)[/li][li]rustling, rummaging, rattling sounds are good. Someone looking through a magazine, or sorting through a makeup case…[/li][li]it needs to either be a recording of a real task or at least a recording of someone who is good at pretending. There’s something subtlely different if someone is clearly tapping for tapping’s sake or whispering for whispering’s sake. It just seems to work best if it sounds like someone actually doing something or telling you something or whatever.[/li][/ul]
*Yes, this is a bit awkward if you work as a lawyer!
Hi, I’ve been looking for forums since I found out what I had:
Ménière’s Disease…synesthesia…ASMR A & B
My mtDNA is H3 from Cantabria. I’ve sent an email to a professor in Germany who is looking into, or appears to be, correlations between some of these…things.
Thanks for being here & starting the thread. I guess I can come out of the freak closet now & let that flag fly. Maybe. It’s hard to live with something thinking you’re a freak & the relief of finding out, even if you are, there are others sharing some of it.:eek:
Bump
years later and it seems ASMR is gaining more and more recognition. Yes, I have experienced ASMR most of my life (although I had no name for the phenomenon for many years) - the frequency it hits me seems to have diminished somewhat in middle age.
Triggers for me include pretty much any verbal description of processes, neurological exams, getting haircuts. There’s a huge number of ASMR videos now on youtube.
Who else experiences ASMR?