Slow speech. Whispering. Scratching or tapping. These are the most common triggers of the phenomenon coined Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response — ASMR — experienced by an exclusive few. It’s a pleasurable and tingly but non-sexual sensation which is felt in the scalp, neck, or back. It was first identified with this name by a researcher in 2010, which highlights just how recently any scientific or psychological body has taken notice. As such, essentially nothing is known yet about why it manifests itself in certain people and what function it serves.

It has come to be known mostly due to the online communities which have congregated thousands of experiencers from across the world. There are now people who work full-time providing triggering material- ‘ASMRtists.’ Diana Dew (pictured) is one.

Her YouTube channel features videos such as herself gliding to each side of the screen, whilst chewing gum and speaking in a mostly incomprehensible whisper for half an hour, and she has thirty nine thousand subscribers to it. It helps that she can experience ASMR, so she can experiment with sounds and techniques “which actually please [her]” It was a sensation she first remembers experiencing at the age of ten. “I remember our English teacher had a very soothing voice and her letters ‘s’, ‘d’, ‘t’ and ‘c’ gave me ‘head goosebumps.’” Dew has exclusively ‘Type B’ ASMR, meaning it is caused only by external triggers. Type A, where a person is able to bring about the sensation at will, is much less common. Dew spends “on average almost three hours [a day]” putting in ASMR-related work, including “six hours spent when recording [her weekly video].” She has picked up the habits of “slowly moving, having a rhythm, moving hands like they are underwater and looking into the camera if [her] face is on screen.”

Personal attention commonly features in ASMR videos, and many involve roleplaying, which doesn’t help to dispel the idea of ASMR as a sexual fetish in the minds of many skeptics. AIHO, standing for Attention Induced Head Orgasm, was an earlier term coined in 2007 which has gradually grown out of favour within the community, partly in an effort to establish the lack of connection the feeling has with sexual pleasure. Outsiders often regard ASMR content as ‘creepy’, nevertheless, and a particularly popular video is likely to draw its share of bemused commenters.

Dew’s main aim with her output is to “help people sleep and get relaxed.” In addition to assisting with sleep and combatting insomnia, ASMR videos have been reported to help with meditation. However, since it is one of the core beliefs of Buddhists that desire for sensory pleasure, or kāma, is a hindrance to satisfaction, whether the videos are advisable if one is pursuing spiritual practice seems up for debate. An ASMRtist known as Ally sometimes produces videos for another purpose and which are more unusual in the sphere of ASMR. She has created and features in a notably successful science-fiction webseries, which also tries to entertain the viewer, or ‘tingleheads’ as she collectively refers to them, with a narrative.

The first episode of 'Departure' has gathered one million and seven hundred thousand views, and features her on a spaceship attending to the viewer by whispering through various destinations in space to where he or she could travel. This might signify the start of a broad expansion into different forms of content, and contribute to another interesting chapter in the so far short history of ASMR.

Archie Brooks-Watson, Ewell Castle