I first learned about ASMR while driving my car listening to a segment of This American Life. It's fascinating.
Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a neologism for a perceptual phenomenon characterized as a distinct, pleasurable tingling sensation in the head, scalp, back, or peripheral regions of the body in response to visual, auditory, tactile, olfactory, and/or cognitive stimuli. The nature and classification of the ASMR phenomenon is controversial.For those who want to explore the subject, Act Two of the TAL podcast is mesmerizing (just click the little forward arrow below "A Tribe Called Rest." The entire segment lasts about 15 minutes, but try it for just 3-4 minutes...).
Reposted from 2014 to add the video above, depicting unintentional ASMR in the movies. Via Kottke.
I first heard about it from http://www.skepticblog.org/2012/03/12/asmr/ (March 2012), and then there's http://www.soothetube.com/ which I browsed a little later that year.
ReplyDeleteFrom 33:32 in the podcast, the speaker is apparently unaware that jewellery is the standard spelling in much of the world. That surprises me, particularly from a published author who has surely had some worldly experience.
The skepticblog post is quite good, with an extended comment thread. Tx.
DeleteWow. A lot has happened since I posted the above comment on the original 2014 posting. I had entirely forgotten about it. Even though I don't get the classic ASMR response, I do find some of the videos enjoyable and have even created a few of my own. Here's the ASMR version of my calendar collection, in which the main trigger is the sound of glossy pages being turned. Happy to recommend some favourite channels/videos if asked.
DeleteIt please me very much when I hear that things like that get a name. Well, too bad it's not actually a word.
ReplyDelete*pleases
ReplyDeleteThis woman is kind of the lady king of ASMR youtube videos:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/user/GentleWhispering
She's pretty much the best. Her voice sends me into such a pleasurable stupor.
Agreed. And I think you would be interested in listeining to the podcast of This American Life that I linked in the post.
ReplyDeleteI also get the sensation in somewhat unorthodox ways. There's certain passages in a few of my books that trigger the sensations when I read them, especially repeatedly. Oddly enough, they tend to be instructional in form, written in second-person address, and often have to do with food.
ReplyDeleteEver since discovering that ASMR was the term for this tingly feeling, I've been seeking it out more and more for relaxation. There's a lot of good ASMRtists (their term) out there; I know GentleWhispering has been mentioned, and I'm also a fan of Heather Feather and TingTing ASMR.
When I visit my parents, I put on an hour long ASMR video, then pretend like I'm on Skype with my gf.
ReplyDelete