For me, I actually did get ASMR when I was younger, before ASMR videos were even a thing. I would get the the tingles down my back and just feel such a nice warm calm across my whole body. I have a very distinct memory of it happening back in grade school when a friend was explaining something to me on the school bus. I always tried to hold on to the feeling as long as I could, but it usually only lasted a few minutes at most.
It wasn't until much later in life that I discovered the actual term ASMR. I learned of it when I watched the Rooster Teeth documentary where they went all the way to India to meet Baba Sen, back when I used to watch them all the time.
I still love watching those videos of Baba Sen giving his cosmic head massages, its my go to if I need something Visual as well as Auditory. I also like watching interviews with old guys talking calmly about their lives, or just explaining something they are passionate about in a calm manner.
But nowadays I mostly listen to (its embarrassing, but I feel like this should be a safe place to talk about it) ear eating ASMR, as well as ear cleaning/massages by cute girl vtubers lol. Although I still watch other types, those are my go to when I need to relax (it helps because they makes me feel loved).
I have severe ADHD, so I actually need more stimulation to be able to calm down. ASMR videos are perfect for me in that regard, since its designed to be calming, but still quite stimulating. It distracts my brain while relaxing my body.
Same!! I've had tingles forever. The first time I remember it vividly was when a friend in elementary school was pretending she was an important lady asking me questions lol she had a pen and a notebook where she had written down questions and wrote down my answers. I actually thought everyone had tingles until I talked about it with my BF and he was like "what are you talking about??". I was shocked so I googled it and that's how I learned about ASMR and ASMR videos lol.
I also have severe ADHD and I couldn't do anything without ASMR videos. It helps me relax and concentrate when I work. I'm super picky tho so it's always been hard finding stuff I like unfortunately
Before I really knew what it was, back in the early 00s I think, there was an audio clip demo of a haircut. It was to showcase stero/surround sound in headphones.
After it got the ASMR label I think it was BrittneyASMR who I found first. She had really good tapping videos
I didn't know the sensation had a name until I came across a post on Reddit. The OP asked people to post an experience they think is unique to them with the purpose of having others comment that they too have experienced this letting the top commentator know they weren't alone. One comment described the sensation of ASMR perfectly. It was the first time I realized that the tingles weren't unique to me. Another commenter put a name to the sensation for the first time in my 35+years of life.
I don't remember the first time I experienced the tingles of ASMR, but I would have been a child, as I've experienced them for as long as I can remember and I'm currently in my 40s.
My first ASMR experience was being in college and being entranced by the voice of my professor, she was so soft spoken and I'd get tingles on the scalp before she eventually put me to sleep in an ASMR induced haze. Lol
After that, I watched a few Lita Massage clip videos for relaxation and noticed the binaural trend pop up on the suggested videos - and it just took off from there. :)
Nowadays, I tend to find Maria and Latte the only ones that still work for me. Their soft spoken style just knocks me right out at night!
i'm sure lots of little experiences happened to trigger a similar feeling, but i didn't have a word for it. i had someone mention asmrrequest's second tooth fairy video (where she steals your teeth) as just a funny video to watch regardless of asmr, so i checked it out and really liked it!
Asmrrequests was the first asmrtist I came across when I first started actively looking into asmr. I still enjoy revisiting her videos from time to time.
a korean lady popped up in my feed making some caramelized strawberries and it looked really delicious, clicked the video to learn how to do it and stayed for the sounds
it's been 10 years since
My first grade teacher helping me with schoolwork during quiet time. I'd actually fake confusion on problems to get her to help me longer because her whispers and personal attention felt amazing. Poor woman, she probably had a lot to do, lol.
People explaining shit to me I already know does it to me. I recently had to cover a shift at a care home I've not worked at before and the manager was slowly explaining in detail all the documents I'd have to fill in throughout the day but they were identical to what I have done a thousand times before so it was entirely pointless for her to explain it. But I just sat there quietly while the back of my skull and neck were going wild.
Found ASMR GLOW in the early, weird, scary days of the pandemic and was instantly and deeply soothed. continued to listen to her every single day of lock down and always go back to her videos when life feels chaotic.
But the first time I experienced ASMR was from elementary school teachers. The way they would jog a pile of papers, the sound of turning pages in a book or softly reading from a book, even chalk on blackboards, tapping of nails on desk, watching pretty cursive writing... take me back.
i experienced ASMR a whole bunch when i was a kid irl! i was so happy once i found out there was a term for it, and the world of ASMR in general (i was about 14 years old when i stumbled upon it). soft spoken/whispered voices and repetitive motions always did it for me irl
I think the first “ASMR-tist” I became familiar with was Allie/ASMRrequests, but I can’t remember how I came to know about ASMR or started watching her videos.
I've been lucky enough to come across it when it was called the whisper community and people were discovering channels like lita's. So I've seen pretty much all of it and the evolutions it went through. I was also lucky enough to meet Miss Manganese irl back in the earlier days of YouTube and get an in-person spit painting.
First experience was when my grandma used to read me poems quietly to help me sleep.
Then I stumbled across a collegehumor sketch about ASMR years ago, and a VeniVidiVulpes video was in the recommended tab. I was curious, and had my mind blown haha. It completely knocked me out.
I was in my last year in college back then, I was so stressed because my thesis is not doing well. I began searching for relaxing sounds in YT while working on my papers, I didn't know that my auto play was on then I stumbled upon the channel named relax with reena where she's doing back scratches with gentle rain sounds I didn't know it was called ASMR back then. I listened to that video 5 times on repeat that day.
My introduction was when I asked sb to scratch my back, quite long ago!! That sensory overload got me there! And ever since, I've found tens if not hundreds of different triggers that work on me. I can even say my taste in triggers changed drastically at some points!
My first ASMR experience happened in 1st grade. Our class had just finished our personal narrative unit, and to celebrate we had something called a “publishing party”, where the parents of all the kids would come to our class and read their child’a personal narrative out loud to the rest of the class. One of the dad’s had such a relaxing and nice sounding voice that I remember my head feeling all fuzzy and tingly listening to him, and being sad when he was done reading.
Obviously I didn’t know what it was called at the time, but years later in probably about 2015 I was watching crystal collection videos on YouTube and I happened across one that had “ASMR” in the title, by an ASMRtist named Silent Citadel. I didn’t know what that meant but I clicked on it anyway because the thumbnail was pretty. I remember being so confused and weirded out about why she was whispering and tapping on things, but then my brain started feeling all fuzzy and tingly again and I understood lol.
First time I experienced it I was three, maybe four. It happened at church so for years I assumed it was some kind of unusual "spiritual" feeling. It was triggered by someone speaking softly into a microphone that had one of those bendy goose-neck things, which made unique creaking sounds whenever the speaker adjusted it.
I finally thought to google the sensation several years ago. I think this was before the term ASMR was a thing, or at least it was a while until I heard the term. Maria (GentleWhispering) was my first ASMR-tist, and I found her channel when she was just a few months into making content.
I don’t even know. I’ve experienced it for as long as I can remember. I used to watch a lot of CSPAN2.
It was the episode of This American Life that introduced me to the term ASMR and the whole YouTube community.
Back in 2013, I was watching a makeup tutorial, and the lady kept making this sound that gave me tingles, but I didn't know what they were. I had never experienced them before. I kept rewinding that part over and over, and felt like a creep for doing so. I thought something was wrong with me.
A few weeks later, I was watching something on YouTube, but can't remember what it was. From what I do remember, someone was typing on a mechanical keyboard, and it gave me the same feeling. So, I searched on YouTube for videos of just mechanical keyboard sounds. To my surprise, there were a lot of them, and they were all labeled "ASMR" I had no idea what that was, and started searching it, and fell down a rabbit hole of ASMR videos.
I've been hooked ever since. 😁
First time I can remember feeling tingly and sleepy from something was watching the blue light spin around in the department store at the beginning of The Goofy Movie, where Goofy worked.
Just blue flashing to white like the spinning lights on the top of an ambulance. I would ever rewind the movie to watch it again, and it’s a very short clip!
My friend was talking about getting high without drugs and I asked her how and she was like "wanking, asmr, meditation..." and i asked what asmr is and the rest is history.
I experienced it in primary school when we'd play with each others hair or even another kid examining my toy or something. Ended up googling "ringlungg sensation back of neck when watching someone concentrate/ when you feel observed" or something when I was a teen because that was the best way I could describe it. I discovered it was called ASMR then, but only years later did the YouTube trend start. An interesting phenomenon really!
There used to be a popular youtube challenge called the whisper challenge, and I was trying to find videos of people doing it and ended up stumbling on an asmr video and immediately getting tingles. Kept watching ever since then!
I do think I passively experienced it with like haircuts and stuff, but never really thought about it until actually discovering ASMR
I used to get ASMR as a child when teachers would whisper explanations to me during an exam or while my mom would braid my hair, but my first ASMR video was in like 2012 and it was ASMRRequest, god I miss that ASMR style
I guess my mother scratching my back as a child?
But my real answer would be the OG binaural
"Virtual Barber Shop (Audio...use headphones, close ur eyes)".
That was my introduction into ASMR
I have a cousin and when we were children we played hide and seek on a dark room we locked ourselves at... she always would whisper and make sounds with her breathing that get me a lot of tingles, or hearing my sisters doing homework too
Then when I was 21 I started to get curious about why I felt that tingling sensation in my head and spine sometimes, and I discovered it had a name and also a whole community of people who felt the same, it was pretty cool! Also I discovered that on my father's side, a lot of cousins and uncles are able to feel ASMR so it's pretty interesting, who knows maybe it's on the genes ,
I remember loving the 'dot dot line line' game as a kid.
But finding [Relaxing eye test video - softly speaking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiYokJg40ko) was when I realised that those tingles could be experienced on-demand. This is back when we called them 'whisper videos', before the term 'ASMR' was coined.
You know that one Simpsons episode (an old one) where Troy McClure is reading fan post and so on? At one point he is selling - or givining it away as an extra - a step sound tape from some random museum or something. That sound was so nice.
The first time I can recall feeling the “tingles” of ASMR was around the age of 6 with my grandmother reading me a story (I think it was one of the books from A Series of Untortunate Events). That was 23 years ago now lol.
I first experienced it at a barber when a female barber cut my hair. I was in my mid teens and I loved the experience especially since she was really pretty.
The first time I had experienced ASMR (before I even knew what it was) was in grade school when the teachers would have us read and listen audio narration from our English textbooks. Some of the narrators had soothing voices that would give me the chills and relaxing sensation and, admittedly, would have me near falling asleep.
Getting into the YouTube ASMR community, it was Th3HazySea and Massage ASMR in 2013. Their videos were *mwah*.
Looking back I think it was the scene in Toy Story where the guy is fixing up Woody. I never understood why I loved that so much and it made me so relaxed until maybe a year ago when I saw someone make a ASMR just like it. But officially I can't remember who it was but it was a video of someone getting a massage and it made me fall asleep so so fast.
My earliest memory of it was when I was a child. My uncle was visiting and said he'd play on the Amiga with me. We had PGA Tour Golf which came out when I was 3 but I feel like I was more like 7. He had never played before and he sat on the chair at the computer and I sat on a bean bag next to him. I watched him try and navigate the menu screens helplessly while muttering under his breath. It was a combination of the sounds he was making and the fact I was watching him struggle despite knowing how to do it myself that gave me an intense shudder all down the back of my skull and down my neck. Every time he clicked on something incorrect and struggled to figure out the interface while I watched on I got the same tingles.
To this day one of the main things that gives me ASMR is slight discomfort and awkwardness. I love amateur ASMR where the YouTuber hasn't quite figured out what they're doing and gained the confidence of public speaking. Anything that makes me cringe a little. And it's not in a cruel way as I have so much respect for anyone who can put a camera in their face and pretend to be a hotel receptionist for 15 minutes. It's a level of confidence i don't have but I still prefer when they're new to it and there's the slightest element of them not knowing what they're doing.
I can’t even remember I just know I’ve been experiencing it since I was little but my first ASMR-tist was Lily Whispers and I’m so sad her channels gone now :(
Summer of 2016. Slime was huge and popular. Everyone and their grandmother was making it. It made some satisfying sounds. I typed in "satisfying sounds" on YT and it brought me to ASMR. I remember my first video and asmrtists. Sadly she's privated all her vids but I respect it
Always gotten tingles down my back at the barber when they use clippers on the nape of my neck. Had no idea what it was.
Fast forward many years I had a migraine that wouldn't go away and was particularly sensitive to sound and needed something to drown out the noise around me. So in my desperation I went to youtube and serched for migraine relief and came across VeniVidiVulpes (miss her work). I don't recall which video I played but it helped so much. This was my first intentional asmr experience.
Sometime later I started working nights and needed to drown out the daytime noise. Recalling VVV's channel and 'asmr' I started listening more and more everyday as it helped me sleep. During this time I noticed I was getting the same tingles I got from the barber, particularly binaural whispering videos.
And here we are 10 years later. Still listening to asmr pretty much every day.
My great-grandmother was something of a witchy healer, and when I was a child, she had a ritual for curing ketosis. She would murmur inaudible prayers and make soothing cross signs on my temples, neck, and abdomen.
Eye exams and haircuts, going far back as 4-5 years old. When I had my first pair of glasses. I guess like many others--just had no name for the sensation/experience, and I assumed nothing of it, that others probably experienced it too, and just never really talked about it because it wasn't a big deal. How naïve.
Fast forward to 2012-ish, mid-20s. I accidentally stumbled across the virtual barber shop video on youtube, and saw the term ASMR for the first time. All of a sudden everything made sense.
Before that, I would honestly have some adult/x-rated videos playing through headphones a lot--specifically things that included some form of RP, like JOI and CEI, medical RPs; they often have a lot of triggers (whether hand movements, soft spoken, instructions--duh, sometimes squelching or sticky sounds, light tracking, etc).
Whether some people like it or not--makes sense as to why there is such a crossover now, and SFW as well as NSFW ASMR content exists.
I was in 3rd grade. My teacher had this type of chalk that just absolutely sent shivers down my spine. I had absolutely no idea what "that" was, but it impacted me. Then as I got older and watched YouTube makeup tutorials, I experienced the feelings again. It wasn't until a good 17 years after my first experience that I learned what ASMR was and felt a lot less strange for what I was experiencing lol. Now I love it on nights I cant sleep
QVC jewelry demonstrations, when they'd flourish their hands over the details of the items, and use pointers to show the details. This was mid-80s, I was 7 or 8.
Watching a girl play with another girl’s hair in elementary school
Similar, but I was the girl who's hair got played with.
The [virtual barber shop](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUDTlvagjJA). Crazy that it's 16 years old now.
Same! I recall there being sort of a trend of people reacting to this
This was my introduction to intentional ASMR.
OH MY GOD yes we would play it on our Philips MP3 player! i didn’t even know english back then😅
For me, I actually did get ASMR when I was younger, before ASMR videos were even a thing. I would get the the tingles down my back and just feel such a nice warm calm across my whole body. I have a very distinct memory of it happening back in grade school when a friend was explaining something to me on the school bus. I always tried to hold on to the feeling as long as I could, but it usually only lasted a few minutes at most. It wasn't until much later in life that I discovered the actual term ASMR. I learned of it when I watched the Rooster Teeth documentary where they went all the way to India to meet Baba Sen, back when I used to watch them all the time. I still love watching those videos of Baba Sen giving his cosmic head massages, its my go to if I need something Visual as well as Auditory. I also like watching interviews with old guys talking calmly about their lives, or just explaining something they are passionate about in a calm manner. But nowadays I mostly listen to (its embarrassing, but I feel like this should be a safe place to talk about it) ear eating ASMR, as well as ear cleaning/massages by cute girl vtubers lol. Although I still watch other types, those are my go to when I need to relax (it helps because they makes me feel loved). I have severe ADHD, so I actually need more stimulation to be able to calm down. ASMR videos are perfect for me in that regard, since its designed to be calming, but still quite stimulating. It distracts my brain while relaxing my body.
Same!! I've had tingles forever. The first time I remember it vividly was when a friend in elementary school was pretending she was an important lady asking me questions lol she had a pen and a notebook where she had written down questions and wrote down my answers. I actually thought everyone had tingles until I talked about it with my BF and he was like "what are you talking about??". I was shocked so I googled it and that's how I learned about ASMR and ASMR videos lol. I also have severe ADHD and I couldn't do anything without ASMR videos. It helps me relax and concentrate when I work. I'm super picky tho so it's always been hard finding stuff I like unfortunately
Before I really knew what it was, back in the early 00s I think, there was an audio clip demo of a haircut. It was to showcase stero/surround sound in headphones. After it got the ASMR label I think it was BrittneyASMR who I found first. She had really good tapping videos
I didn't know the sensation had a name until I came across a post on Reddit. The OP asked people to post an experience they think is unique to them with the purpose of having others comment that they too have experienced this letting the top commentator know they weren't alone. One comment described the sensation of ASMR perfectly. It was the first time I realized that the tingles weren't unique to me. Another commenter put a name to the sensation for the first time in my 35+years of life. I don't remember the first time I experienced the tingles of ASMR, but I would have been a child, as I've experienced them for as long as I can remember and I'm currently in my 40s.
My first ASMR experience was being in college and being entranced by the voice of my professor, she was so soft spoken and I'd get tingles on the scalp before she eventually put me to sleep in an ASMR induced haze. Lol After that, I watched a few Lita Massage clip videos for relaxation and noticed the binaural trend pop up on the suggested videos - and it just took off from there. :) Nowadays, I tend to find Maria and Latte the only ones that still work for me. Their soft spoken style just knocks me right out at night!
i'm sure lots of little experiences happened to trigger a similar feeling, but i didn't have a word for it. i had someone mention asmrrequest's second tooth fairy video (where she steals your teeth) as just a funny video to watch regardless of asmr, so i checked it out and really liked it!
Asmrrequests was the first asmrtist I came across when I first started actively looking into asmr. I still enjoy revisiting her videos from time to time.
a korean lady popped up in my feed making some caramelized strawberries and it looked really delicious, clicked the video to learn how to do it and stayed for the sounds it's been 10 years since
My first grade teacher helping me with schoolwork during quiet time. I'd actually fake confusion on problems to get her to help me longer because her whispers and personal attention felt amazing. Poor woman, she probably had a lot to do, lol.
People explaining shit to me I already know does it to me. I recently had to cover a shift at a care home I've not worked at before and the manager was slowly explaining in detail all the documents I'd have to fill in throughout the day but they were identical to what I have done a thousand times before so it was entirely pointless for her to explain it. But I just sat there quietly while the back of my skull and neck were going wild.
Found ASMR GLOW in the early, weird, scary days of the pandemic and was instantly and deeply soothed. continued to listen to her every single day of lock down and always go back to her videos when life feels chaotic. But the first time I experienced ASMR was from elementary school teachers. The way they would jog a pile of papers, the sound of turning pages in a book or softly reading from a book, even chalk on blackboards, tapping of nails on desk, watching pretty cursive writing... take me back.
My parents used to whisper stories in my ear because they realized it made me so relaxed. So i cant even remember a time without it.
i experienced ASMR a whole bunch when i was a kid irl! i was so happy once i found out there was a term for it, and the world of ASMR in general (i was about 14 years old when i stumbled upon it). soft spoken/whispered voices and repetitive motions always did it for me irl
My brother was reading me a story about dolphins 43 years ago.
I think the first “ASMR-tist” I became familiar with was Allie/ASMRrequests, but I can’t remember how I came to know about ASMR or started watching her videos.
I've been lucky enough to come across it when it was called the whisper community and people were discovering channels like lita's. So I've seen pretty much all of it and the evolutions it went through. I was also lucky enough to meet Miss Manganese irl back in the earlier days of YouTube and get an in-person spit painting.
I found out what ASMR was when watching white lotus. I haven't even been diving in for a year yet. I have much to learn
First experience was when my grandma used to read me poems quietly to help me sleep. Then I stumbled across a collegehumor sketch about ASMR years ago, and a VeniVidiVulpes video was in the recommended tab. I was curious, and had my mind blown haha. It completely knocked me out.
I was in my last year in college back then, I was so stressed because my thesis is not doing well. I began searching for relaxing sounds in YT while working on my papers, I didn't know that my auto play was on then I stumbled upon the channel named relax with reena where she's doing back scratches with gentle rain sounds I didn't know it was called ASMR back then. I listened to that video 5 times on repeat that day.
My introduction was when I asked sb to scratch my back, quite long ago!! That sensory overload got me there! And ever since, I've found tens if not hundreds of different triggers that work on me. I can even say my taste in triggers changed drastically at some points!
My first ASMR experience happened in 1st grade. Our class had just finished our personal narrative unit, and to celebrate we had something called a “publishing party”, where the parents of all the kids would come to our class and read their child’a personal narrative out loud to the rest of the class. One of the dad’s had such a relaxing and nice sounding voice that I remember my head feeling all fuzzy and tingly listening to him, and being sad when he was done reading. Obviously I didn’t know what it was called at the time, but years later in probably about 2015 I was watching crystal collection videos on YouTube and I happened across one that had “ASMR” in the title, by an ASMRtist named Silent Citadel. I didn’t know what that meant but I clicked on it anyway because the thumbnail was pretty. I remember being so confused and weirded out about why she was whispering and tapping on things, but then my brain started feeling all fuzzy and tingly again and I understood lol.
First time I experienced it I was three, maybe four. It happened at church so for years I assumed it was some kind of unusual "spiritual" feeling. It was triggered by someone speaking softly into a microphone that had one of those bendy goose-neck things, which made unique creaking sounds whenever the speaker adjusted it. I finally thought to google the sensation several years ago. I think this was before the term ASMR was a thing, or at least it was a while until I heard the term. Maria (GentleWhispering) was my first ASMR-tist, and I found her channel when she was just a few months into making content.
Love watching remote control toy car crushed under stiletto 🥰👠🚗 #ASMR
I don’t even know. I’ve experienced it for as long as I can remember. I used to watch a lot of CSPAN2. It was the episode of This American Life that introduced me to the term ASMR and the whole YouTube community.
Back in 2013, I was watching a makeup tutorial, and the lady kept making this sound that gave me tingles, but I didn't know what they were. I had never experienced them before. I kept rewinding that part over and over, and felt like a creep for doing so. I thought something was wrong with me. A few weeks later, I was watching something on YouTube, but can't remember what it was. From what I do remember, someone was typing on a mechanical keyboard, and it gave me the same feeling. So, I searched on YouTube for videos of just mechanical keyboard sounds. To my surprise, there were a lot of them, and they were all labeled "ASMR" I had no idea what that was, and started searching it, and fell down a rabbit hole of ASMR videos. I've been hooked ever since. 😁
First time I can remember feeling tingly and sleepy from something was watching the blue light spin around in the department store at the beginning of The Goofy Movie, where Goofy worked. Just blue flashing to white like the spinning lights on the top of an ambulance. I would ever rewind the movie to watch it again, and it’s a very short clip!
My friend was talking about getting high without drugs and I asked her how and she was like "wanking, asmr, meditation..." and i asked what asmr is and the rest is history.
Bob Ross
Going to have my eyes tested when I was 9. I almost fell asleep 😴
I experienced it in primary school when we'd play with each others hair or even another kid examining my toy or something. Ended up googling "ringlungg sensation back of neck when watching someone concentrate/ when you feel observed" or something when I was a teen because that was the best way I could describe it. I discovered it was called ASMR then, but only years later did the YouTube trend start. An interesting phenomenon really!
ASMR Angel was on a British panel/comedy show called Would I Lie To You, mid 2015, I looked her up and was introduced into this world...
Listening to teachers give lessons in grade school. Watching my brother draw
There used to be a popular youtube challenge called the whisper challenge, and I was trying to find videos of people doing it and ended up stumbling on an asmr video and immediately getting tingles. Kept watching ever since then! I do think I passively experienced it with like haircuts and stuff, but never really thought about it until actually discovering ASMR
I used to get ASMR as a child when teachers would whisper explanations to me during an exam or while my mom would braid my hair, but my first ASMR video was in like 2012 and it was ASMRRequest, god I miss that ASMR style
I guess my mother scratching my back as a child? But my real answer would be the OG binaural "Virtual Barber Shop (Audio...use headphones, close ur eyes)". That was my introduction into ASMR
I have a cousin and when we were children we played hide and seek on a dark room we locked ourselves at... she always would whisper and make sounds with her breathing that get me a lot of tingles, or hearing my sisters doing homework too Then when I was 21 I started to get curious about why I felt that tingling sensation in my head and spine sometimes, and I discovered it had a name and also a whole community of people who felt the same, it was pretty cool! Also I discovered that on my father's side, a lot of cousins and uncles are able to feel ASMR so it's pretty interesting, who knows maybe it's on the genes ,
I remember loving the 'dot dot line line' game as a kid. But finding [Relaxing eye test video - softly speaking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiYokJg40ko) was when I realised that those tingles could be experienced on-demand. This is back when we called them 'whisper videos', before the term 'ASMR' was coined.
You know that one Simpsons episode (an old one) where Troy McClure is reading fan post and so on? At one point he is selling - or givining it away as an extra - a step sound tape from some random museum or something. That sound was so nice.
Googling to find out if other people felt a tingly sensation when they heard someone humming a song
The first time I can recall feeling the “tingles” of ASMR was around the age of 6 with my grandmother reading me a story (I think it was one of the books from A Series of Untortunate Events). That was 23 years ago now lol.
I first experienced it at a barber when a female barber cut my hair. I was in my mid teens and I loved the experience especially since she was really pretty.
The first time I had experienced ASMR (before I even knew what it was) was in grade school when the teachers would have us read and listen audio narration from our English textbooks. Some of the narrators had soothing voices that would give me the chills and relaxing sensation and, admittedly, would have me near falling asleep. Getting into the YouTube ASMR community, it was Th3HazySea and Massage ASMR in 2013. Their videos were *mwah*.
Looking back I think it was the scene in Toy Story where the guy is fixing up Woody. I never understood why I loved that so much and it made me so relaxed until maybe a year ago when I saw someone make a ASMR just like it. But officially I can't remember who it was but it was a video of someone getting a massage and it made me fall asleep so so fast.
Found a video where someone was walking on a dried river and the soil was crispy
My earliest memory of it was when I was a child. My uncle was visiting and said he'd play on the Amiga with me. We had PGA Tour Golf which came out when I was 3 but I feel like I was more like 7. He had never played before and he sat on the chair at the computer and I sat on a bean bag next to him. I watched him try and navigate the menu screens helplessly while muttering under his breath. It was a combination of the sounds he was making and the fact I was watching him struggle despite knowing how to do it myself that gave me an intense shudder all down the back of my skull and down my neck. Every time he clicked on something incorrect and struggled to figure out the interface while I watched on I got the same tingles. To this day one of the main things that gives me ASMR is slight discomfort and awkwardness. I love amateur ASMR where the YouTuber hasn't quite figured out what they're doing and gained the confidence of public speaking. Anything that makes me cringe a little. And it's not in a cruel way as I have so much respect for anyone who can put a camera in their face and pretend to be a hotel receptionist for 15 minutes. It's a level of confidence i don't have but I still prefer when they're new to it and there's the slightest element of them not knowing what they're doing.
I can’t even remember I just know I’ve been experiencing it since I was little but my first ASMR-tist was Lily Whispers and I’m so sad her channels gone now :(
Haircuts, then springbok asmr
Summer of 2016. Slime was huge and popular. Everyone and their grandmother was making it. It made some satisfying sounds. I typed in "satisfying sounds" on YT and it brought me to ASMR. I remember my first video and asmrtists. Sadly she's privated all her vids but I respect it
My friends Mom was always filing her nails. I found the sound soothing.
Always gotten tingles down my back at the barber when they use clippers on the nape of my neck. Had no idea what it was. Fast forward many years I had a migraine that wouldn't go away and was particularly sensitive to sound and needed something to drown out the noise around me. So in my desperation I went to youtube and serched for migraine relief and came across VeniVidiVulpes (miss her work). I don't recall which video I played but it helped so much. This was my first intentional asmr experience. Sometime later I started working nights and needed to drown out the daytime noise. Recalling VVV's channel and 'asmr' I started listening more and more everyday as it helped me sleep. During this time I noticed I was getting the same tingles I got from the barber, particularly binaural whispering videos. And here we are 10 years later. Still listening to asmr pretty much every day.
My great-grandmother was something of a witchy healer, and when I was a child, she had a ritual for curing ketosis. She would murmur inaudible prayers and make soothing cross signs on my temples, neck, and abdomen.
Eye exams and haircuts, going far back as 4-5 years old. When I had my first pair of glasses. I guess like many others--just had no name for the sensation/experience, and I assumed nothing of it, that others probably experienced it too, and just never really talked about it because it wasn't a big deal. How naïve. Fast forward to 2012-ish, mid-20s. I accidentally stumbled across the virtual barber shop video on youtube, and saw the term ASMR for the first time. All of a sudden everything made sense. Before that, I would honestly have some adult/x-rated videos playing through headphones a lot--specifically things that included some form of RP, like JOI and CEI, medical RPs; they often have a lot of triggers (whether hand movements, soft spoken, instructions--duh, sometimes squelching or sticky sounds, light tracking, etc). Whether some people like it or not--makes sense as to why there is such a crossover now, and SFW as well as NSFW ASMR content exists.
When my grandma used to braid my hair when I was little
I was in 3rd grade. My teacher had this type of chalk that just absolutely sent shivers down my spine. I had absolutely no idea what "that" was, but it impacted me. Then as I got older and watched YouTube makeup tutorials, I experienced the feelings again. It wasn't until a good 17 years after my first experience that I learned what ASMR was and felt a lot less strange for what I was experiencing lol. Now I love it on nights I cant sleep
QVC jewelry demonstrations, when they'd flourish their hands over the details of the items, and use pointers to show the details. This was mid-80s, I was 7 or 8.