h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Someone, quite a bit ago I think, posted a convo on here linking to a blog (or something) about a particular sensation that some people get and others don't. A sort of tingling sensation in the scalp that can extend further and occurs, for example, when you here specific people/voices. Usually gentle, soft voices. Usually an attentional thing I think.

I'm one of those that does get it, first encountered when I was, oh, 5 or 6 I think.

Well, turns out there's been a bit of a growth in curiosity about it and I recently came across the site
http://hubpages.com/hub/ASMR

which links to a research page at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheUnnamedFeeling/~3/Dtjpz767BqM/primary-run-of-first-asmr-video-trial.html

and a link to a youtube playlist of vids that cause it in some people.
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E8472AC462AED2F5

They've even got acronyms for it as well Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response! We dunno what it is, but now it has a name we can study it

Anyway, just putting this out there for anyone else who gets this sensation (and as I say, if you do, you'll know) and as a bit of an update to the previous post I mention (which I've lost and the site it linked to). Enjoy, even for the those who don't get it I'm quite sure some of those youtube links will be very relaxing.

Not so much tingling, more a tightening of the scalp skin, pretty much limited to my tonsure.

are we talkingsense here???

nope, this is something real. A particular physical reaction that, it seems, only a few people get to certain stimuli. It reduces with age and, for most people, isn't that predictable. For me, it is voices. Can be male, can be female. Can be low or high pitched. Nothing, I should make clear, with a sexual overtone.

That you ask indicates you don't get it. Sorry It's a weird feeling and most who get it, unless they are fortunate to encounter such stuff on the web, never realise that others get it to.

I should add, the content or message of those youtube vids is not the issue - it's sensory.

I'll be d@mned (probably)!

I have experienced that feeling and never really acknowledged it- mostly when getting my hair washed or even cut at times, definitely when a masseuse gives my scalp a go at the end of a massage. Sometimes from music, sometimes from a sig oth talking.

I never really thought about it, I guess I just assumed everyone had the same feelings.

Thank you for those links.

can't get any of the links but i think i know the feeling

i used to get it when i was being shaved with a cut throat razor

I don´t feel that sensation you say, does it have to do with sinaesthesia? (sp?)

The first link contains a video: Fascinating massage with Lita.
I´ve watched it, I´ve enjoyed it and I have to say thank you very much indeed for that link. Delicious.

When she does pression on that point behind that muscle,between the neck and the shoulder... that´s pleasure. I´ve evoqued one I received time ago.

Thank you thank you thank you....

I'm not sure, for me, that it does have anything to do with synaesthesia. Although synaesthesia is far more common than many used to think, and is a continuum such that we're all on the 'line' somewhere, I don't really have it beyond a vague feeling that days of the week have certain colours. It's a different sort of thing altogether.

Glad you enjoyed the vids though, pleased to have given that!

Although it is interesting what you say about the evoked feelings. I can remember this particular feeling. Even, as I say, the original and strongest time from when I was about 6 or so. And, if relaxed and peaceful enough that memory can prompt the actual feeling again. Not just a memory of it, but if I concentrate on the sensory input at that time, the sensation occurs again, albeit not as strong.

Kinda weird really cos it is unexpected so if it happens it catches you by surprise (not in a bad way) and it is *so* hard to concentrate when it happens!

Check. Me too. I thought I just had an over-sensitive scalp. Rather nice when it does happen, though.

I never knew this was connected to voices. I always thought it occurred to me when my Guardian Angel was around, or a visitor from the spirit world.

I experience it and thought everybody did. It is usually fleeting and always associated with good things.

I get it most often when I hear a piece of music that fits my mood perfectly at a particular moment. A song will come on the radio that I haven't heard for a long time or I will be listening to a particular album which has one or two outstanding tracks. If I'm on my own I will crank up the volume an revel in the moment.

Recently I watched the Piano Concerto in D Minor episode of Mozart Uncovered on BBC4 (here but sadly no longer available to watch - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0074q2q ). Charles Hazelwood deconstructed the piece and then finished by conducting the whole thing. Brilliantly tingle-worthy!

Incidentally I can induce the sensation consciously and suspect that it is autonomic in origin.

t.

I assumed this was just parasitic mites on the march: A31267884

Quick...call Nitty Nora - the bug explorer!

t.

I think some here are confusing the "chill factor" and this "scalp tingle" - they are different; I know which is which as I experience both.

It was me who started the original discussion. "Do you get this?" http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/F19585?thread=5594299 The only time I heard someone else mention it in real life was when Nitty Nora did a flea check and I heard my friend says, "Ooh, I feel all fuzzy" immediately after. If I hadn't remembered that I would've probably kept it to myself till the day I die! If someone is examining me and that examination has some gentle physical contact and the person has a quiet, whispery voice then I'm likely to experience it. As has been said many times, if you get it, you know it.

You might get it if you listen to this:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11881792

I get this when something is being explained to me one on one. Is this the same thing?

RF

Sounds like it. I often get it then too. Especially if the person's hand movements are slow and deliberate and they have the right voice.

I often feel as though the world is shrinking away from me, or that I'm hovering over the chair, or feeling like all my skin receptors are gently firing all at once. Usually it's blissfully soothing.