Year: 2016

Interview with WhisperingLife, the first ASMR artist

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian ResponseWhisperingLife has her Bachelors of Science degree in Ophthalmic Dispensing and is currently a Dispensing Optician in Nottingham, England.

WhisperingLife is not her real name, she prefers to keep that private.  But this was the name she chose as her alias in early 2009 when she created the first whisper-dedicated channel on YouTube.

For this historical milestone, she is often referred to as the first ASMR artist.

Before jumping into the interview I want to provide more context and background about WhisperingLife.

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ASMR data from website polls (February 2016 update)

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityThis article is an update about the data collected by the polls on this website polls which are located HERE.

This updated summary has website poll data from about 1,100 individuals (about twice the amount since the last update).

This data is specific to the population of visitors to this website who take these website polls and may not be applicable to other populations.

Below is a short summary of the data, followed by the full data from the polls.

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What would a body map of ASMR sensations look like?

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityEmma Barrett and Nick Davis actually proposed a body map of the ASMR sensation in their 2015 research paper.

They created the image of the body map from the data gathered in their survey.  The image shows that the strongest ASMR sensations were in the head, spine, and shoulders – and got weaker with distance from the head.

Their image of the ASMR sensation is almost identical to body map images in a paper recently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) journal titled, “Topography of social touching depends on emotional bonds between humans.”

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Meet Sue Dorrens, the founder of the ‘I Love ASMR’ Facebook page and the author of an upcoming book about ASMR

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversitySue Dorrens is currently living in Edinburgh, UK and has a Bachelor’s Degree in Physical Education from Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.

She worked as a Physical Education teacher for 14 years but now spends her time on other endeavors including several past, present, and future ASMR resources.

At present, she is very active with posting about the latest ASMR news, events, and related stories on her I Love ASMR Facebook page.  She has also created an ASMR video website and is currently working on an upcoming book about ASMR.

In my interview with Sue she shares how ASMR has helped her, her creation of what might be the first ASMR video website, her observations about changing trends in ASMR, the focus of her upcoming ASMR book, and more.

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Come see the new face of ASMR University (ASMR U update)

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityI’m kicking off 2016 with a new look for the website.

The banner, content pages, and news blog are all basically the same.

The new addition is the Home Page (AKA Welcome Page, Landing Page, Main Page, etc.).

I think this new Home Page will make it much easier to understand and access all the content of the website.

Come take a look.  Click the link below to view the new Home Page.

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How important is the non-verbal aspect of ASMR?

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityThe big similarity between WhisperingLife’s first whisper video channel and the relaxation video channels which preceded her channel is that both channel types relaxed and soothed the viewers.

One of the big differences though is that WhisperingLife did not use her words to relax, she just used her voice.  She did not talk viewers through guided relaxation or meditation scenarios, she just rambled about stuff or read from books – but in a soft, gentle, whispering voice.

And now a research study published in the journal, Biological Psychology, has provided more evidence about how the human brain is more receptive to ‘how’ something is being said rather than to ‘what’ is being said.

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ASMR and plant-based products to help with sleep

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityPeople often stumble across ASMR when searching for natural methods and products to help them sleep.

And on the flip side, some people who have temporarily lost their ability to experience ASMR or do not experience ASMR may seek out other natural methods and products to help them sleep.

One popular category of natural sleep products is ‘plant-based products’, which also may be referred to as ‘nutraceutical sleep therapeutics’, or ‘herbal sleep supplements’.

I recently came across a very well written review article on nutraceutical sleep therapeutics and I wanted to share it (a link to the article is provided below).

The products covered in the article include L-tryptophan, chamomile, cherries, kava kava, valerian, and marijuana.

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What would you want in a real world ASMR spa?

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ASMR Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response UniversityI have previously written an article about an in-person ASMR spa in Canada.

Well, the lucky citizens of Ireland may also be getting a new ASMR spa for their real world tingles and relaxation.

Amanda Rose Doherty is a product manager at a pharmaceutical company in Dublin, Ireland and received her Business Studies Degree in Marketing at Dublin City University.

Amanda is also interested in opening up an ASMR spa in Dublin.

Her keen marketing education and wisdom is guiding her to make informed decisions about her spa vision.  To help her do this, she has created a survey to gather input from those within the ASMR community.

In my interview with Amanda she shares her inspiration for an ASMR spa, her goals for the survey about the spa, her perceived challenges of bringing her idea to reality, her wonderful vision of an ASMR-enriched future and more.

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