Based on your ASMR experiences…
Explain if you can stimulate or experience ASMR on command or spontaneously, include details like:
- Can you stimulate ASMR on command? If so, how do you trigger it?
- Does it ever happen spontaneously/randomly?
- Do you consider this meditation or something else?
- Do your immediate surroundings make a difference?
- How is the sensation similar or different from ASMR triggered by a video or by a real world stimulus?
Note: Sometimes self-induced ASMR is confused with self-induced frisson. If you feel chills, see your arm hairs rise up (piloerection), or experience goosebumps then you may be experiencing self-induced frisson (AKA voluntary piloerection) rather than self-induced ASMR.
- Read about frisson here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frisson
- Read about voluntary piloerection here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6071615/
If you think you are experiencing self-induced ASMR (rather than self-induced frisson), then please do share your answers and experiences in the Comments section below.
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ASMR University 
Both for me, but can’t induce too much as tolerance sets in.
As for spontaneous, God* knows.
*an Abstraction, Not an anthropomorphization, to me
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Yes, as long as I can remember. It feels like I can trace signals up my body. I tried to explain it to a few people and they looked at me like a weirdo so I stopped talking about it. I just now Googled it because I felt it randomly while laying in bed. Then I remembered that I can control it and did it again. As a child, it happened when someone was lightly touching my back/neck/hair. This is sounds odd, but you know when someone does the “I’m not touching you” thing and they hover their finger over your face? If anyone did that near my head or neck I would feel it. I used to imagine those triggers, but now I can just focus on an area (usually only my back, neck, or head) and create the feeling. I used to do it a lot as a child, but I usually don’t anymore and I just let it happen randomly. It also diminishes in strength the more I do it. Doesn’t feel like mediation, more like consciously moving a body part. I’m not exactly sure about how surroundings affect it. I can do it pretty much anywhere, but it varies in strength. I have never watched an ASMR video, but probably will right after this comment.
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I’ve always done been able to do it on command, full body or on any focused spot. Even though it felt good, I didn’t do it often because I didn’t think it was normal. I was worried I might be causing harm to my body if I did it too much (don’t know what I was thinking ha). Up until now I got curious and googled it. Been abusing the heck out of it now for the past 10 minutes hahah. Gonna try and experiment when I meditate or get anxiety. Only spontaneous time is when I hear a really damn good song (Like Hanz Zimmer – Mountains, full blast alone on a road trip. Had the biggest grin on my face). I never knew this was ASMR, but I had stumbled upon a couple of vids before i made the connection. Only certain attractive female voices do it for me. Surroundings don’t make a difference.
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Can you stimulate ASMR on command? If so, how do you trigger it?
Yes, I can. I just need to think about wanting the sensaion, just like thinking about moving my hand or any other part of my body. It usually starts on my head or back of my head, but can make the sensation happen in any part of my body or all of my body.
Does it ever happen spontaneously/randomly?
It can happen randomly. But usually it just happens when I trigger it.
Do you consider this meditation or something else?
Perhaps, I am not sure.
Do your immediate surroundings make a difference?
No.
How is the sensation similar or different from ASMR triggered by a video or by a real world stimulus?
It is not different than when it is triggered due to a song, which is connectes to some kindnof strong memory or nostalgia. But ASMR videos and sounds dont trigger, perhaps I am too used to doing it by myself.
I would really like to know more about this, and why it is happening. Or what are the advantages and disadvantages of triggering the sensation.
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I can induce ASMR at will since I’m about 10, and I experimented with this sensation quite a lot since then, and there’s quite a lot to be said of it:
Can you stimulate ASMR on command? If so, how do you trigger it?
– Yes. I just can. If I choose to, it’s like an action. like raising an arm. and it happens almost immediately. often I tend to visualize the action like starting a spark around my mid back, where I usually choose to start the sensation. I can start it from other places but it is far stronger around the spine.
Typically I tend to close my eyes, sometimes rolling the eyes back while the eye is closed help creating the sensation or making the sensation stronger. But this is not a must, and the sensation can be induced in any other state or condition.
It’s important to add that it can be done a limited amount of times at a short period. Usually, the first induced sensation is the stronger and it gets weaker and weaker until it feels like I’m starting an empty electric generator. I feel like there is a spark but it doesn’t catch on. After a while the ability to induce it again regenerates. I never measured the amount of time it takes to regenerate, but I would say it’s somewhere between a few minutes to half an hour.
Does it ever happen spontaneously/randomly?
It can happen with a moving music for example. I can intensify the feeling at will if it happens spontaneously. I’m still unsure if it is the same phenomena and feels exactly the same when it is triggered by myself or via an external source.
Do you consider this meditation or something else?
I don’t consider it a meditation, it’s an action for me. In a way meditation is the aware focus of doing one thing only, and one I induce the sensation at will it’s exactly what I do. I want to keep the feeling and intensify it I need to keep my attention to it. Therefore you could say it’s a meditation, but I don’t consider it as such.
Do your immediate surroundings make a difference?
I can induce the sensation at any point. It’s easier getting a strong reaction when the temperature is cold. But it’s not a rule. I can also induce it when it’s hot.
The rule of thumb is that I need to concentrate to induce ASMR, and I can easily concentrate even in distracting conditions.
Sometimes I isolate myself in dark and light ambient music. This can induce an extreme whole-body reaction that is far stronger than a regular one. Maybe this can be done without all of these, I just haven’t given it as much attention in other environments.
How is the sensation similar or different from ASMR triggered by a video or by a real-world stimulus?
The ASMR videos that I have seen have induced for me what I would describe as a very mild sensation around the head. It’s a nice feeling, and while it is similar it’s not quite the same. At times real world experience or music can induce a much more similar reaction (but I am unsure if it is the exact same yet)
Personal addition
It is worth to mention I associate this ASMR to another sensation that I haven’t found any description of it except in Spiritual guides as Chi/Energy/Etc.. I am not a very spiritual person but I’ve seen no scientific account of this sensation that is very real to me. I am also able at will to create a tingling in any part of the body (predominately much much stronger at my palms). This sensation is intensified by ASMR and also inducing Stronger versions of ASMR, and while ASMR comes and go, the tingling can stay for as long as I choose to. With practice, the tingling can expand to other sensations such as a feeling of “energy pulses” / attraction and gravity pull between the hands, a feeling liked there is a “force wall” around the body, a feeling like there is a force ball between my hands, what I tend to call a “helmet” which is a strong dense tingling around the entire scalp and the like. After doing this for a while, the palms get “stuck” in a position and the moving of the fingers feels weird at the beginning, a bit like the muscles were not “oiled” if they needed oil to function. Hard to describe cause I’m not sure I felt it in any other place.
I hope this helps, and you are welcome to ask more questions.
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