Ever been tickled by a whisper or soothed to sleep by the sound of rain? Joe and I, Adam, have ventured into the subdued landscape of ASMR to examine its captivating power to relax and intrigue the senses. Our latest episode takes you through a series of sensory experiments, from the gentle combing of a beard to the subtle mix of colors, all while uncovering the science behind why certain sights and sounds can trigger deep relaxation or, for some, a case of the cringes. We also share personal anecdotes and a splash of humor, offering a peek into the various ways people, including those in the autistic community, respond to the peculiar world of ASMR.
Have you ever wondered if your brain could be trained to find peace in the mundane? Join us as we discuss the nature of ASMR and its resemblance to brain training techniques that aim to induce tranquility. We explore whether this phenomenon is rooted in biology or conditioned through experience, and we entertain the idea with recent studies that probe into our brains' response to ASMR. From the mystery of chill-inducing whispers to finding your personal zen object, we navigate through the complexities of sensory experiences and ponder their effects on our neurological makeup.
Wrapping up our auditory adventure, we delve into the challenges faced by individuals with autism when confronted with sensory overload, drawing parallels with the cacophony of displeasing ASMR sounds. But it's not all soothing whispers and brainwaves! We lighten the mood with tales of gift-giving espionage and the art of 'gift hacking,' sharing laughs over clever strategies for uncovering the perfect present. So, whether you're an ASMR aficionado or simply looking for a unique take on the sensory quirks of the human brain, plug in and let's decode the enigmatic symphony of triggers that make ASMR a true auditory delight.
Ever been tickled by a whisper or soothed to sleep by the sound of rain? Joe and I, Adam, have ventured into the subdued landscape of ASMR to examine its captivating power to relax and intrigue the senses. Our latest episode takes you through a series of sensory experiments, from the gentle combing of a beard to the subtle mix of colors, all while uncovering the science behind why certain sights and sounds can trigger deep relaxation or, for some, a case of the cringes. We also share personal anecdotes and a splash of humor, offering a peek into the various ways people, including those in the autistic community, respond to the peculiar world of ASMR.
Have you ever wondered if your brain could be trained to find peace in the mundane? Join us as we discuss the nature of ASMR and its resemblance to brain training techniques that aim to induce tranquility. We explore whether this phenomenon is rooted in biology or conditioned through experience, and we entertain the idea with recent studies that probe into our brains' response to ASMR. From the mystery of chill-inducing whispers to finding your personal zen object, we navigate through the complexities of sensory experiences and ponder their effects on our neurological makeup.
Wrapping up our auditory adventure, we delve into the challenges faced by individuals with autism when confronted with sensory overload, drawing parallels with the cacophony of displeasing ASMR sounds. But it's not all soothing whispers and brainwaves! We lighten the mood with tales of gift-giving espionage and the art of 'gift hacking,' sharing laughs over clever strategies for uncovering the perfect present. So, whether you're an ASMR aficionado or simply looking for a unique take on the sensory quirks of the human brain, plug in and let's decode the enigmatic symphony of triggers that make ASMR a true auditory delight.
Today on the Idiot's Guide we're talking about, from a soft whisper, someone playing with your hair, a genuine but still kind of creepy, intense stare directly at you, or simply watching two colors of paint blends together. The land of ASMR is a wonderful world of simultaneous comfort and discomfort. It all comes down to preferences, and our today old life hack is, if you're unsure what to get that special someone for their special day, we've got just the right hack to guarantee they'll love whatever you get them. I'm your host, adam Richardson, aka the Profit Hacker, and I'm joined by the man in charge, mr Joe Haslam.
Speaker 1:Welcome to the Idiot's Guide. Welcome back to the Idiot's Guide, where we are two idiots who are just as unqualified as anyone else but still try to talk about all the stuff, stuff. Before I dive into our topic for today, I'd like to let you guys know we are a community here. Part of that community is welcoming new people. If you're new here and you're enjoying this odd episode, hit that subscribe button like us, give us a comment, tell us how you feel right now.
Speaker 2:Are you relaxed? Are you a little sleepy?
Speaker 1:That's okay. It's kind of on purpose. As we go through this today, I really think that I'm very uncomfortable with trying to maintain this demeanor. That is not a whisper, it's not a talking, not anything loud, still have the same energy that I would need for a podcast recording, and it's legitimately challenging. We are both very boisterous individuals, and so to have to tone that down in order to be in the ASMR world for vocal volume is definitely a challenge for both of us. For both of us, I never really thought that ASMR had a purpose, I guess, or that it was really as popular as it was. But even my kids, when I mentioned the fact that we were going to do an episode on this, they were really interested in what like, like the fact that I was doing this.
Speaker 1:It's something fascinating that's out there. There's lots of crazy things, lots of videos, probably one of the highest trending videos that it's been that way for years. But why? Why is it so like this odd practice of listening to someone breathe between words, talk subtly or with a cadence and somehow it's supposed to relax you to hopefully sleep? How it's supposed to relax you to hopefully sleep?
Speaker 1:To me, if I'm being honest, I really think that it's just a bunch of items that we've decided to listen to. I mean, like I think about. There's a practice in I can't remember like Thailand they have videos of them like slurping noodles and it's a thing and I like that's part of this. So I have some props today to kind of carry on as we do this. Something as simple as just rubbing the microphone. Fortunately I can't hear that, so it's not bothering me. But every other sound that you have done bothers me. Even talking quietly is bothering me, like I know.
Speaker 1:With asmr, the idea is that you get the tingle, you get the, the response in the base of your skull that goes down your spine and all this and it's supposed to feel good and all of that. I have the opposite response. It is horrible. Hopefully adam will throw in the image of don't do it again, of me cringing when he was doing that, slurping at the open of the episode. That's my response. When I hear ASMR, I'm gonna make that one the thumbnail cover. Oh great it is, and I don't know what it is. Maybe I just have the opposite effect of what most people have. So one of the reasons we decided to talk about this, or one of the things that you brought up was I am autistic and you wanted to be sensitive to my reactions to certain things, and there's really been no studies done on whether people who are autistic, or whether it's, have a sensitivity to it, whether it's just certain people have a sensitivity to it and it has nothing to do with autism at all, whether there's a difference between neurotypical and neuro atypical brains. Uh, in their response I'm talking way too fast for asmr. Uh, I'll try to itr ever so if we don't have a cadence that's soft and soothing, tough.
Speaker 1:Now I do teach a form of meditation. It relies on science, it relies on the neurological pathways of the brain and there are strong evidences that a specific tone, a specific cadence we see this in religious leaders when they speak a certain way, they actually used to teach, I think in some seminaries they still do teach a specific vocal pattern to in order to draw people in. And so I, when I work with people with meditation, I use a very specific tone. I keep my voice, you know, modulated, as opposed to like here on the podcast. Sometimes I'm very upbeat, other times I'm much more melodic. Whether I'm thinking or whether I'm trying to prove a point or anything like that changes my vocal tonation, and so trying to be ASMR is extremely difficult and, again, even talking this softly or hearing you talk this softly is very aggravating. I did not think it was going to be, but it is. While I talk about this, real quick, I'm going to go ahead and run this comb through my beard. So, first and foremost, I got an article from Healthline by the writer Lauren Sharkey, which is a really cool last name. I thought Wrote this back in 2019.
Speaker 1:Best 28 ASMR triggers for anxiety relief, stress, sleep and more. And really honestly, there's not a lot of fanciness about this other than exactly what I'm doing here Randomly running a comb through my beard and capturing the sound and the visual of this happening. Now that's doing two different methods of ASMR one in which you can hear the brush going through the hair that's supposed to be soothing and, at the same time, somebody visually watching that. Now I don't think I look like a very comfortable person. This probably looks creepier than anything else, but the idea is that both of those are supposed to be at tempo, calm, relaxed and soothing to relieve that anxiety that you may have built up inside of you. There's lots of different ways to do this. This one has 28 most common, but it's not definitive. This isn't a whole list of it. It's not definitive. This isn't a whole list of it.
Speaker 1:Probably one of the biggest things that you can tell is whispering. Whispering is indicative of a relaxed environment. Even when you go get a massage, they're not going to be like, hey, so-and-so, are you done with your massage yet? Are you good? Do you feel great? No, they're going to be calm and relaxed and say is it okay if I do this? I'm going to put whatever on my hands and give you a massage, whatever it's communicated in a gentle, soft whisper in that environment. I know you don't get massages. No, I don't. You're like this is fascinating information. Well, the few times that I have had massages, it's never been a whisper. It's that same meditation, volume and tone that I was talking about earlier. That generally, I see with that I've had two massages in my life. So not a great data set, but that's what I've experienced. Another tone is tapping or scratching. This is my ASMR cup. For those watching, you can hear the ice making a beautiful rattling sound inside of it. It's a wonderful noise. Joe's face is just horrified right now.
Speaker 1:I did mention comfort or discomfort. Yes, yes, you did. But one of the things? I watched a video on this and there was a gal. She had a plastic like pool noodle that she had queued up between two microphones and she was just tapping on the pool noodle. There was nothing else not rubbing like, no squeaking sounds, it was just tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. And I feel like this. That's a lot better sound to take than the tapping on a pool noodle through stereo effects. And the worst part about it is when I listened to her, the part I didn't like the most was she was like Now, if you guys can gather, that was heavy nasal breathing. It was more distracting than anything else that I was watching or listening to. So there's no way I'm going to get relaxed by listening to nasal breather tap on some plastic. It just would. It was driving me nuts and I lasted about 30 seconds in there and I was like I'm out, I'm done. This is stupid, but people love it. She had like 500 and something thousand views.
Speaker 1:I I some people may think I am faking my responses. These are real responses that I am having. This is oh, it's taking me a little bit to recover. Every time you do one of them Not, the mouth noises oh man, I got a banana. Joe, this is going to be difficult for you. I know I am really trying to stay in here.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about some of the science behind this. All right, I'll give you the reins for a little bit. So, as of right now, there's not a lot of definitive science on what's happening. What does asmr stand for? I asked my kids. They have no idea. Most people don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so for those that don't know, it is autonomous sensory meridian response. What? What does that mean? That means that you are getting a. So autonomous means you don't have control over it. It's just automatic Sensory. That's pretty self-explanatory. It's the senses, so it's an automatic sensory response. So a lot of they talk about like the tingle in your spine, right back down your spine. I've heard that the nickname tingle brains or tingle heads Okay, great, that's funny. But I've also heard them equated as a braingasm. I've heard that, yes.
Speaker 1:So, and that's where a lot of the science revolves around is is this an actual thing? Is this actually happening? Is it just psychosomatic? So a lot of people talk about MSG. So MSG for a long time was said to cause a whole slew of conditions. Well, they have since proven that wrong, there's no sensitivity to MSG, there's no physiological problem with it, but there is some psychosomatic. Because you believe it, then it does happen. That's why, like my generation, when we go get Chinese food, I feel bad. Right, it's all psychosomatic, it's the placebo effect, and it's not necessarily that I feel bad, like it sometimes depends on where I eat the Chinese food. But I feel bad because I'm, like, convicted that I'm eating so much MSG. Right, yeah, and MSG is just salt, yeah, a form of salt. But it's this idea that we have created, this idea in our brains that we have to feel sick after something and therefore we do. And it's not that you're faking sick, you legitimately are sick, it's the placebo effect, it's psychosomatic. And so they're studying is this a psychosomatic effect? Is this a real thing? That's occurring, and so there have actually been a couple of good studies. They haven't done any very large, fully in-depth studies on it yet, but they're getting there and unfortunately, there's no concrete answer as to why we do what we do when it comes to ASMR, why it's reacting the way that it does One neurologist.
Speaker 1:So there was an article on Vox, a website and I can't remember the name of the blog that's not Vox, like the news V-O-X. V-o-x, and they were referencing a blog article from a neurologist who was answering questions on ASMR. This was back in 2012. And he was saying there's a lot of different things that it could be from, and now some of the research does point some of the new research does point to the directions that he was referencing could be the cause. So one of those is that we are conditioned to have a response to certain stimuli, so when we see a red light, we immediately stop. That's something that's been trained in us, and so we have trained ourselves that with certain things, we act a certain way. When we put our hand toward a hot stove, when our hand starts to feel the heat, which is a sensory response we pull our hand back immediately. That is an automatic sensory response. The exact same thing. And so he had a couple of other thoughts in there, but that's the one that seems to relate mostly with the more modern. Again, he was answering that in 2012, before really any of these studies were done, the first real comprehensive study was done in 2015. And that started a lot of the other studies. That started a lot of the other studies. So a lot of the other studies will then reference this one from 2015 okay, as the starting point for the studies into this um, and so his conclusions were long before any of these studies were being done, and so I referenced that just because it seems to be. That's where it's coming from.
Speaker 1:So the 2015 study is called Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, a flow-like mental state. Now, this one had the largest number of participants, also a good split between male, female and non-binary, and a couple of the problems with it was it was a self-reporting study and it was us. The participants were regular consumers of ASMR, and so what they found is that ASMR can be induced in those who are susceptible. So they found that there are some people who are susceptible and others who are not, which again goes back to this may be a biological function that is then part of the triggering response, and so some people don't develop those triggers. Some people do. It also could be environmental, but in those who are susceptible, by a fairly consistent set of triggers, so it does seem that there's a pattern to it. Now, again, this was done on regular consumers of ASMR, which kind of removes some of that biological function. These could be trained, developed traits, and so someone who consumes it finds out they like it and then they continue to consume it. They pursue, yeah, and that also goes into a 2023 study. So this is the most recent study that I could find Okay.
Speaker 1:So this was last year and this was done in Japan. Was that noodles involved? Slurping, no, no, well, I don't know, I don't know exactly what was involved. That's when ASMR was Slurping. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course, that's a little racist to say noodles when I'm talking about Japan, I, it's, it's, it's.
Speaker 1:Why do you gotta do that to me? Don't, don't do that to me. It's it's not necessarily racist, it's a triggering response. Your noodles in japan are synonymous, exactly. It's a biased anyway.
Speaker 1:Um, but the 2023 study is called brain function effects of asmr video viewing. Uh, now, the problems with this study it was a small quantity of participants only 30, but it was evenly split male and female. But there was also no control group, so they were only studying ASMR videos. They weren't studying ASMR videos versus normally relaxing videos to see if there were similar or different responses. Now, with this one, they did actual fMRIs, so those are functional MRIs where they're watching the brain function as they're showing these videos, and so we're seeing what areas of the brain are actually being triggered as part of listening to ASMR. And what they found is there's a difference. There's actually a different segment of the brain that is triggered when it is an auditory only, versus an auditory and visual auditory and visual. And so those of you listening to the podcast on a streaming service for podcasts only are going to have a different triggering response in the brain the biological side of it versus those that are watching on YouTube, and so there are going to be two different segments of the brain that are being triggered as part of this, which is really interesting. Now, they're related portions of the brain but they are different.
Speaker 1:I'm curious if, like you and I have had a conversation about this in the past, where smells can be a really big trigger for certain things and, because this is part of part of what you're doing with, this is stimulating in order to trigger somebody into a certain state of mind. Um, now, a smell can can be positive or negative. A good example of that is earlier today I went on a walk. It's rainy outside and I went through an area that was full of cottonwood trees and it smelled amazing. But that smell like fresh rain, smell like down through an area with grass, and things like that reminded me of walking along the river at my grandparents' house, you know, along the Boise River. But then you have, on the flip side of that, you have, if I smell burning trash or a burn pit of some sort, I don't think about my grandparents, I think about a combat zone and I physically feel that at that point. So one just kind of takes me down memory lane. I kind of run through a catalog of pictures the other one can send me spiraling out of control, really out of control, but I don't know how. I don't think like this one.
Speaker 1:What's interesting is it's more audible and and visible. It isn't. It isn't even actually the the idea of touch, because you're just watching it, it's an observation. Or you're hearing the comb go through, you know, like the hair or something like that, something rubbing a microphone. You can hear those sounds. So you're really not looking at, I feel like, the entirety of what ASMR can be.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's that's kind of what they're finding. Is that asmr, these, these sounds, these triggers, these visuals are actually triggering specific portions of the brain to cause a reaction. Now, the areas that they're triggering are really specific and really important, and so and it seems to tie back to that same idea of what we think of as traumatic triggers, and so that's why it's hard to say whether this is a biological function or the idea of nature versus nurture, Nature being biological, nurture being the environment around us as defining what we like or what we don't like, or what we run from or what we run to, and so it's just really interesting. The science is still early, very early on ASMR, but a lot of the conclusions from a lot of the studies are. We need to study this more, because there seems to be something behind this, and it could be. In my viewpoint, it is related to the same idea of those triggers, in that we've learned to value something or see something, and that creates a dopamine-like effect in our bodies that we like that.
Speaker 1:Now I talked about meditation, of a form that I do with people, and this is what that is, is I have them find an object that has absolutely no meaning and then I attach to that object, through certain practices, a, a reaction, yeah, and so what happens is that they now associate that object with that reaction. Generally, it's just getting them into that calm, you know, um, lower heart rate state, and so anytime they think about that object, they immediately go there, and so that could be what's happening with asmr and people who use it to fall asleep is that they've trained themselves that whenever they watch asmr, they will go to sleep. I've trained myself to do that with the tv show futurama. I know it sounds really weird. I, the voices on that show. I would. I would pull my hair. I don't have any. I shave my head. I cannot watch the TV show Futurama anymore unless I'm trying to Because you fall asleep.
Speaker 1:No, I do, and I have actually trained myself so that when I'm ready to go to sleep, because I'm an insomniac, my brain does not shut off ever. I could be constantly awake thinking of of new things, new ideas, new uh, whatever. But I've trained myself that when I watch a tv show of view drama, I am literally asleep in five minutes. I have been on the same episode of view dramaama for about two weeks now. Wow, because I instantly go to sleep as soon as I put that on. Put my head down, I get two minutes into it. I'm done. Some nights it doesn't work as well, but it's a training.
Speaker 1:I have trained my brain to respond to Futurama that way. I know it sounds really, really weird, but this is potentially similar to what's happening with ASMR, and so it can work with anything. It's just with ASMR it's quiet, it's not Futurama. The kind of delivery is gentle or soft, right, and so just like you're listening to a loudmouth robot to put yourself to sleep, and I kind of I get why? Because if you're an insomniac and your brain is going constantly, that stimulation kind of neutralizes that constancy. Constancy, that's not a word, but while I'm talking. I'm going to kind of keep going with this.
Speaker 1:I think one of the things that you know we, I don't know I think kind of going to those senses is really a big part of it. As I'm doing this for those who aren't watching the video but are just listening to the podcast I'm currently opening a box of Ritz crackers in order to access the crunchy deliciousness inside. Crunchy deliciousness inside. It's so interesting how heightened your senses are to the sounds when you eliminate the normal volume of things In normal everyday life. These sounds don't necessarily bother me, it just happens to be right now. But because we're specific I'm almost done Because we're specifically being quiet, these sounds are heightened in our processing, in the processing of our brain, so how it's processing everything around us is heightened. And so again, in normal situations these aren't as bad, but because they're really the only external stimulus coming in to my brain, this is just massively frustrating. So think about it Again. This is, I mean, I don't know if I'm getting this negative response because I'm autistic.
Speaker 1:I would love to see some studies on ASMR and autism. But people who are autistic, they go to, say, a park. There is no filter in the brain of an autistic person to stop the processing of extraneous sounds. A neurotypical brain will automatically filter everything out, so it's only processing the most pertinent data out. So it's only processing the most pertinent data, whereas for someone that is autistic there is no filter. Everything is coming in and everything is being processed. And so here with this asmr, every little tiny crackle of that chip, everything that is just simplified, a massive input of just information to process. It seems like it should be less, but it's not so.
Speaker 1:If I think about descriptives like I think if I were to take my fingernails and scratch concrete, it makes your spine tickle right. Or a chalkboard Nails on a chalkboard. They're like oh man, I hate the sound. My son doesn't like the sound of cotton rubbing. It's not even picking up on the microphone. So I think that sound, that tear of cotton, and just seeing it he hates it, he can't stand it. If he sees it, he's like running away gagging. Then I was telling you this earlier. My older son likes to pester my other son with this. He'll get a straw. You can get a straw from, like you know, mcdonald's or whatever it is, wherever you're at. We're not sponsored by McDonald's, but we'd like to be.
Speaker 1:I did once say that their fries were relatively healthy. I've got the evidence for it. But he would. He would take it and take the straw out of the paper wrapper. But instead of just tossing, wadding up the wrapper and throwing it in, he wouldn't even wad it up, he'd just kind of chunk it into big chunks and then feed it into his mouth and chew it so it gets wads up in his mouth. It into his mouth and chew it, so it gets like wads up in his mouth and just the. The action of chewing up paper was just like it honestly makes me want to throw up, right. So this asmr thing. I think the thing that they're missing out on is just this, this concept of I'm almost done, joe, don't worry, this one's not as bad because it's really quiet.
Speaker 2:I'm hoping that while I talk it's going to catch some of the sounds of this though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, eating a banana. Oh, I got it on my mic. You're terrible. I think I'm going to start an ASMR channel Just to annoy me. I will not be a subscriber. You're going to go in and thumbs down every single video I make. This kind of explains why I've never gotten into ASMR. I haven't had a banana in a while. That was a little bit brown. I'm not that good. I'm allergic to them, so I haven't had them in a long time.
Speaker 1:While you're getting on to this last one, no, we're almost done. We're almost done. All I'm trying to do is just kind of stimulate, but if you want, we can take a detour for a second. I have a couple more A detour. I've got to take a minute. Go ahead. This is very negative stimulating for me. I'm going to try to probably do dual cameras this time so that you can see the entire time I've been doing this, joe's face and his reaction. He physically does not want to be in this room right now.
Speaker 1:So, uh, the 2023 study that I referenced before um, they did find, so I just want to go through what they, what areas of the brain were activated during the fMRI? Okay, and so these are going to be very scientific-y terms, so bear with me. Okay, those are $25 words right here. Oh, these are more than $25 words. Audio-visual stimulation showed activation of the middle frontal gyrus and the nucleus accumbens. Okay, so that's the audio-visual, so it's audio and visual. So the middle frontal gyrus that plays a key role in the development of literacy and numeracy, so that is the language. So literacy, language, reading and ability to use numbers, so that's kind of I guess the easiest way to say that is the logical centers of the brain. So letters and numbers and all that as well as. And then the nucleus accumbens is one part of the reward system. It plays an important role in processing, rewarding stimuli, reinforcing stimuli. So reinforcing is food and water, so rewarding is obviously the reward, reinforcing and those which are both rewarding and reinforcing. So here are some examples of rewarding and reinforcing addictive drugs, sex and and exercise. And so when you are watching and listening to ASMR, those are the areas of the brain that are being stimulated, being activated, same thing as what they talk about, even like the dopamine Right. That's what it is, the dopamine right, and so. And then the auditory stimulation showed activation in the insular cortex. So the insular cortex is important for sensorimotor processing, so that's the motor, the physical action, and related to the sensory input. So sensorimotor processing, risk reward behavior, autonomics, pain pathways and auditory and vestibular functioning. And so all of that to say is that when you just hear it, it isn't the same, it's not hitting the same areas as far as, like, the reward, um reinforcing, or the reward and reinforcing, but it is in the same area as risk reward behavior, behavior as the pain pathways, and so it's really it shows that there is some kind of addictive behavior, not necessarily negative, but there is some addictive behavior coming from any of the ASMR. I would explain the need to pursue more of that Exactly.
Speaker 1:So now again, this study. They did not do a comparison, so they didn't have a control. That was watching, like, say, kittens playing, watching, um, like, say, kittens playing. That would be a relaxing to see if it's a similar response to those or if these are specific to asmr, because we know kitten videos are addictive. The entire internet is full of cat videos and so I don't, I hate them, I think they're dumb. Yeah, well, you've seen my response to ASMR, so it could be individual responses to ASMR. It really is, and that's why it's important, and they only had 30 participants. If they had 1,000 participants to do this and have a control group, that would show us a lot more, which hopefully they will be doing more studies on this.
Speaker 1:If it's just the videos themselves that are producing these responses, and so ASMR is no different than cuddly cat videos, or if there is a difference. Now, if there isn't a difference, it doesn't mean ASMR is any less of a valuable tool. It's just another tool in the arsenal to calm down For people who don't like cat videos. It's a way to calm down For people who don't like ASMR or have the responses I have. Cat videos may work just fine. If there are different responses, then that can allow us to look into what is it about the ASMR that is producing this response. It gives us more areas, more avenues to study. So right now there is evidence that there is this reward behavior coming from ASMR. Whether it's ASMR specific or just calming videos, not sure yet. They've already seen the link Between it being an anxiety relief. So it's because of that.
Speaker 1:How can they help motivate, like a new modality In practice, so that this can be a normal therapy, right? So an example of this, so isolating it down to the components that really help. So willow bark for many, many, many, many, many many generations was a medicine used to help pain. Yeah, they didn't know why, they just know willow bark helped. Well, after study by scientists, they found that willow bark contains what we now call aspirin. Right, and so by, instead of having to grow willows everywhere and using willow bark, now we've isolated aspirin and it is a medication that we can use. Yeah, we've isolated aspirin and it is a medication that we can use.
Speaker 1:Same thing with ASMR. If we can isolate what it is about ASMR that's producing these kinds of responses, we can distill that into a concentrated form to hopefully allow more concentrated relief for things like anxiety, for other issues, to just calm down, and then that would allow us a stronger tool in the mental health crisis and to help people with mental health. Yeah, so I think you know we're in agreement on the. There's a future application to this. I think we don't want to discount the other senses when we're talking about this, but I think that the specific parts of these that are isolating compared to the other senses when we're talking about taste, touch, smell is the other ones are physical, where when you're talking about just visual or just auditory, it is if you're triggering a physiological response from two senses. That, on one sense, requires a video. It requires a camera, it requires a microphone, but all the other ones require a video. It requires a camera, it requires a microphone, but all the other ones require a contact.
Speaker 1:And I think the effort in what this was is to simulate that I can get you to physiologically respond simply by doing things in front of you. And that's crazy. I mean, it's wild stuff. So I'm going to finish this off here, yeah. So crinkling is another one. So I'm not going to crinkle this up, I'm just going to kind of touch it near the mic. You can crinkle it if you want. You can crinkle it if you want. I do get the tingle. It's just not a pleasant response for me.
Speaker 1:So there's lots of different things, but I think probably the biggest proponent of these things and this one shouldn't be difficult this is just turning pages of a book. It's just. You know, I'm reading a book, I'm talking to you, that's it. It made me think of, like you know, when someone in my life was reading me a bedtime story. Or, you know, you think about, you know moving open a newspaper and you know getting it open and you're looking at it and you take that paper and you kind of like it. It just everything about the paper makes noise and so it's just, it's there and I don't necessarily know how that would be soothing, especially if it's constant. It's like tapping. I can't stand freaking tapping.
Speaker 1:Some things are humming, from humming like mm to different sounds that your mouth makes, like S's, p's and K's. Why? Because they're breathy. They sound breathier than other things. But then you also have things like a motor running. I no, I can hear a motor running a mile away from my house and I have hearing loss and I can hear that. I can feel it and it pisses me off. And so it's just it's's to each their own. These are very distinct to the individual.
Speaker 1:Some things won't work. Other things will be magic, where none of these things that I brought as props might be. They're not helpful for you. But you know, I don't know. I liked brushing my beard. That was nice and soothing for myself. You know, let us know in the comments what, if any of these, worked for you, because we know none of them worked for me. This entire thing was just extremely negative for me. Joe got really excited when I talked to him about the idea, but now that we're in it he's like this sucks, it's horrible, okay. So I'm going to ask, we're going to do a reset, but we're going to back away from the mics and finish the episode at volume, okay. So anyone who is listening to this for ASMR, we're going to end the ASMR right now, so stop listening. Otherwise, this is going to be very jarring for you.
Speaker 2:That was kind of intense. I really think that you know I mean having a conversation via ASMR is interesting, it's different.
Speaker 2:It really challenges your like, it intensifies everything. Like even for me, like hearing, I could hear you know, things outside, things around like just normal creaks, and you know I could hear my muscles, my sore muscles, being sore, you know, like whatever, like it was just kind of this strange, mostly uncomfortable environment, you know. So I don't know how I feel about it, but that being said, I'm trying to kind of let's do a reset here. Let's get back into who we are, what we do and have a conversation about this.
Speaker 1:I think in one aspect if you want to know what it's like to be autistic in a large crowd, take an ASMR video or sound that you don't like. An ASMR video or sound that you don't like, if there are any that negatively trigger, you take that and magnify it by a thousand. Or play like 20 of those videos Like, if you've got different ones, you know 20 different negative triggers play them all at the same time. Negative triggers. Play them all at the same time. That's what it's like to be autistic. That's what it's like in the world around an autistic person.
Speaker 1:That's why here in our office I mean we've we don't have a lot of people here I keep myself in my room where there's not a lot going on, um, because that's what it's like for me when I go out in crowds is it's very, very just always on you. Now I've developed ways to be able to bear through it, but I think that's probably the biggest. I mean it was really interesting learning about ASMR and seeing the science and explaining that, but really I think it was interesting to see, uh, how much it relates to autism.
Speaker 2:Um, and really, if you want to see, if you want to feel what it's like for someone who's autistic, do that well, I think also to to recognize that it's it's not for Like, there are people that this doesn't do anything like, it really has no impact whatsoever, and you're like, I don't know, you're kind of a weird person then, because this is wrecking people, you know, and people go nuts over this. It's wild, there's so much about this. But anyway, you know what, if you're, if you're in the market for just trying to figure out what you want to do for that special someone, and you know, maybe the ASMR tapes are not their jam, you know they just don't really like it and they're not really interested in listening to somebody chew. I don't know who would Like.
Speaker 2:I said the video I watched. I watched man. The most annoying part about the video wasn't the fact of anything they were doing asmr, it was them breathing, like that was the most annoying thing and I don't know if they were doing it on purpose. But I know I can video edit that out. If you're looking for that gift for somebody and you just don't know what to get them, you're like man, this one has to knock it out of the park. I'm going to ask you to tell a little white lie. Tell that someone that you've already gotten them the gift and that you're going to challenge them to guess. That way, you know exactly what they want.
Speaker 1:Okay, anyone who has ever watched a sitcom in their life knows that this will inevitably backfire.
Speaker 2:But think of the comedy behind if you get busted and they don't really like the gift and you're like meh, it's just that, the whole gift is meh, all right. Then all of a sudden you know it's just that the whole gift is meh, all right. Then all of a sudden you know or what is it? The gift is an L. I learned that one the other day. Oh, there you go, honestly like them, just confessing the story at that point and being like well, you told me, like just having that kind of like light-hearted spirit about it, but but really going like I have no idea what to get this person. So tell them and then have them reveal to you what they're secretly wanting. By guessing what they. You know what they're like. It's not gonna be like oh, is it a million bucks? You know. You know, is it a new car? You know like no, the only commercials do that.
Speaker 1:No, no, humans, um, you know, like I don't know this is another one of your dubious life hacks that's.
Speaker 2:That's. That's the goal. That's. The goal is just to try to. I mean, the idea behind hacking is you are you're cutting the corner on normal operations, and this one, I think, cuts the corner pretty well. I mean, honestly, if you're around somebody enough to where you can get that information in a more spy sort of way, then you're good.
Speaker 1:I think you've got to be pretty good at that, though. Yeah, I mean, cause I just imagined that would be so hard. They tell you something and you're like, oh, that's a good idea, okay, I'll get that, and then it takes you two weeks to get it from Amazon.
Speaker 2:Oh, start early. You know, like, oh, okay, whatever, like if it's, if it's like man, I already got your gift for gift for you. You know, I know your birthday is coming up, it's still a bit away, but I've already got your gift. You want to guess what it is? There you go I know you know, like I've given, I've set it up now. Yeah, obviously it takes a little mental planning there, but I think we're good you've got to make sure to hide the receipt.
Speaker 2:Hey guys, we've reached the end of our show. I, uh I want to recommend like, subscribe, leave a comment or two. We'd like to hear from you, our listener, if this stuff is valuable and helpful to you. Uh, that helps us get a get in front of other other viewers, other listeners, other watchers. Um, life's too short, so keep laughing and learning and remember idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes.