Speaker 1: And hello today it's going to be a very special
Speaker 1: episode of sens is a s m R, which stands
Speaker 1: for Autonomous sensory meridian responses. Um enjoying this or you
Speaker 1: might be hating it because some people do not like
Speaker 1: a s m R at all, which is so interesting.
Speaker 1: But you but just in case you want to know
Speaker 1: you're in the right place. You are listening to Nerd Defficent.
Speaker 1: I am your host if you away, And you know,
Speaker 1: I'm really excited about this one because it's very very
Speaker 1: quiet at times and sometimes it's loud. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: I do know someone who hates a s MR. So
Speaker 1: I and that person did pick it. It's Danny. She
Speaker 1: hates a SMR, so I think you know, in her honor,
Speaker 1: I'm just gonna do it like this for the rest
Speaker 1: of the episode. The binural mix that I hew you doing,
Speaker 1: little mom, I'm here, I'm back. I made it back
Speaker 1: to the show. It's been sh wrong. I've been on
Speaker 1: her show. How Naomi now she's in college, daughter Naomi
Speaker 1: should college. She's in college now. It's been show long s.
Speaker 1: I'm being on there NERD Tactic Podcast. During that whole bit,
Speaker 1: Danny was moving her arms like she was using the cane,
Speaker 1: but it just looked like she was going to ready
Speaker 1: to shoot some dice. I was like, all right, you
Speaker 1: want to lose your money, this is how much I
Speaker 1: love you. I'll not that literally anyone at because I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone. Maybe one person might have asked a
Speaker 1: long time ago, but I can't remember. I thought it
Speaker 1: would be fascinating to look at the world of a
Speaker 1: s mr um because it is technically, I think a
Speaker 1: part of the nerd community. I considered part of the
Speaker 1: nerd community. It's definitely part of the YouTube community that's
Speaker 1: really taken off its existed before YouTube. But yeah, but
Speaker 1: that's kind of what made it explode. I don't like it.
Speaker 1: I in our group chat of this podcast that we
Speaker 1: have with Dan and our producer and Anna i Um,
Speaker 1: I said I would rather us going over hardcore porn
Speaker 1: um SMR. I'm one of those people that find it
Speaker 1: what's the word uncomfortable. That's the word I'm looking for.
Speaker 1: And it's got to find your right trigger. See, because
Speaker 1: I was the same way, and I was like, this,
Speaker 1: this is what's Bernain doing it for? But then I
Speaker 1: found out slime and scratches is where Well, the thing
Speaker 1: that I do want to say is that a lot
Speaker 1: of these YouTubers are upset and rightfully so, that they're
Speaker 1: being flagged as it being just a sexual fetish. And
Speaker 1: they do a lot of people use a s MR
Speaker 1: to sleep, to relax and sleep, and and there are
Speaker 1: a lot of people that use it for sexual reasons.
Speaker 1: And that's fine too, and that's true, Iffy. Yeah, like
Speaker 1: we said with Roger Craigsmith, some of that sonic art
Speaker 1: you know, some of the sonic sonic art on Tumbler,
Speaker 1: which Tumbler is now taking off porn anyways, Yeah, a
Speaker 1: s MR, as if you said it is autonomous sensory
Speaker 1: meridian response. Essentially, it is. This is the definition, is
Speaker 1: an experience characterized by a static like or tingling sensation
Speaker 1: on the skin that typically begins on the scalp and
Speaker 1: moves down the back of the neck and upper spine.
Speaker 1: We know it as people talking very quietly on YouTube,
Speaker 1: very very quietly, like like like this quietly, and you
Speaker 1: can hear my mouth sounds. You can hear when my
Speaker 1: my mouth comes together. But you might somebody might be like, yep,
Speaker 1: that's it. I need Danny to start a YouTube play
Speaker 1: I guess I could do an sm R Patreon. Maybe,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I have some projects I need to
Speaker 1: get funded. Um, I think i'd be good at it too,
Speaker 1: especially this voice that I have. But voice I think too.
Speaker 1: So yeah, if you tell me what we're what are
Speaker 1: some of your favorite videos? Like what are you into? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, what are you what do you
Speaker 1: like to watch with a sm R. Let's not get
Speaker 1: into what you're Well, it's too general of a question
Speaker 1: with with a sm R. I found that it is
Speaker 1: like The Slimes. And I found it because I was
Speaker 1: like at a party, and you know how you go
Speaker 1: to a party, the conversation is kind of all kind
Speaker 1: of die out and you talk to everyone that you know,
Speaker 1: and you know, you're like, all right, well let me
Speaker 1: bust out this phone and you know, use this until
Speaker 1: somebody tries to shame me for using AM at the
Speaker 1: party and I tripped across it was so random. It
Speaker 1: was on the Explore page, but it was a slime
Speaker 1: Instagram channel and for some reason I had like, oh,
Speaker 1: I didn't have headphones. I was watching it and then
Speaker 1: like I was watching the Slimes and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is oddly pleasing to look at, but it said
Speaker 1: a S A SMR, and then I kind of put
Speaker 1: the phone up to my ear and I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: this is tight. So yeah, I can't remember. I think
Speaker 1: Danielle Radford, who is one of our close friends. She
Speaker 1: was on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode. Yes, she
Speaker 1: likes she like, She's openly said this, so I'm not
Speaker 1: outing her. She likes listening to people eating sandwiches, and that,
Speaker 1: to me is how I figured out that it was sexual.
Speaker 1: I thought it was just like, oh, yeah, okay. I
Speaker 1: didn't really think anything of it. And then when I
Speaker 1: heard that of like people with beards eating sandwiches, I
Speaker 1: was like, oh, oh gotcha. Yeah okay, but yeah, let's go,
Speaker 1: let's get into uh a s MR. So although the
Speaker 1: term a s MR and the niets YouTube community are
Speaker 1: relatively new, the sensation itself is arguably not. There's no
Speaker 1: actual record of a s MR existing until a few
Speaker 1: years ago because people had no way of really talking
Speaker 1: about it. The sheer volume of a s MR videos
Speaker 1: on YouTube, though, is a testament to the thousands, I
Speaker 1: would say, millions of people who feel these tinglies and uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know they enjoy it. Yeah. Yeah, uh and
Speaker 1: it's and it is crazy because it has like blown
Speaker 1: up and it's been interesting to see kind of where
Speaker 1: it started, which was I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: the videos kind of focused on the whispering kind of touching. Yeah, whispering,
Speaker 1: but like it's kind of blown up and there's so
Speaker 1: many likes. Oh wait, I have it? Wait hang on,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, you know what I feel like if wispy,
Speaker 1: I mean they did the entire a song like that.
Speaker 1: I bet that was you know, so I'm looking at
Speaker 1: a billboard. This is an article on Billboard. It was
Speaker 1: the ten times whispering and rap songs unintentionally created an
Speaker 1: a SMR experience. You know, hip hop might have been,
Speaker 1: it might have been started it, especially though, because that's
Speaker 1: a little sexual. You know, that's a little sexy. Sexy. Well,
Speaker 1: what's the number one pick on that? Let's see what
Speaker 1: is another? Can you think of others? I mean that
Speaker 1: wasn't oh David Banner, yes, yes, play yes, wait no,
Speaker 1: oh no, this is the edited one. Okay, you would
Speaker 1: have been late by the time you realize that. You said,
Speaker 1: oh wait right after where two spice? You're right, and
Speaker 1: that was a good call on their part because we
Speaker 1: can't play that on here. Number one, run girl, we're
Speaker 1: trying to get your body wet. Yeah we can say that,
Speaker 1: you know. Number one I don't with is Ice Ice Baby.
Speaker 1: I've yeah, no, no, no, but yeah, I totally agree too.
Speaker 1: Is the Whisper song from Yanang Twins and three is
Speaker 1: David Banners play, which we're both both parts of my
Speaker 1: high school experience. Um yeah, well, because I mean my
Speaker 1: big thing was the like a pimp that was David Banners,
Speaker 1: like big banger for me, but but definitely by like
Speaker 1: I was well aware of David Banner by the time
Speaker 1: play came out, But like that was the one in
Speaker 1: high school I remember mostly because that was I got it.
Speaker 1: Got it as a ringtone for my Boost mobile phone
Speaker 1: and I was playing it because someone showed me how
Speaker 1: to hack your Boost mobile phone to like put free
Speaker 1: ring tones on and I was I was the King Frog,
Speaker 1: remember that, Like commercially, I don't know how that frog
Speaker 1: was like the baby Shark of our generation because everyone
Speaker 1: was all about that dumb frog, and I was like,
Speaker 1: how did this get so popular? Like I understand that
Speaker 1: Ali McBeal, baby, I don't understand that Frog. Yeah. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for those of you who don't know what we're talking about, Andrew,
Speaker 1: you're younger than us. Um. It was this weird like
Speaker 1: cartoon frog where you could get your ringtone essentially, you
Speaker 1: could like, wouldn't it be a number that you set
Speaker 1: up or you texted or called or something, and they
Speaker 1: it would like give met you. It was called crazy Frog. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Do you remember while we're on this kick, do you
Speaker 1: remember the Gerbil song or what was it? Like? Didn't
Speaker 1: eat that? You don't remember that? Well? Aware of that
Speaker 1: weird ass song, people have either tuned in or turned out.
Speaker 1: Oh all right, you should be able to Oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: this is what happens when I'm delirious from shooting for
Speaker 1: two weeks and you bring me back on this show.
Speaker 1: This not only so so I buried the lead here.
Speaker 1: I found someone who uploaded the original commercial. But Crazy Frog,
Speaker 1: which is the name of it, has its own Vivo
Speaker 1: and so is it still alive. It's still posting. It's
Speaker 1: under the first video. Okay, gonna eat that? You know,
Speaker 1: I feel like I've seen this frog recently, like oh,
Speaker 1: this was from nine years ago, but it's also copied
Speaker 1: written Crazy Frog commercial jamster that was it. Okay, let
Speaker 1: me see this is from two thousand and five from
Speaker 1: your respond Okay, so you would text crazy one if
Speaker 1: you wanted one of the like one of those songs,
Speaker 1: and easy too if you wanted a different one. Anyways,
Speaker 1: that was our life back then. Wow, didn't date that?
Speaker 1: D No, d that didn't go and we'll pay whatever
Speaker 1: dumb amount of money. Are you doing it right now?
Speaker 1: Do you think that it still exists out all right?
Speaker 1: Live on air? You're hearing right now if this jamster
Speaker 1: frog works crazy that's so watch you like give money
Speaker 1: to I don't know, hell, you've given one million dollars
Speaker 1: to Isis. I was like, oh no, all right, let's
Speaker 1: let's really reeling this back into a s MR um.
Speaker 1: It's a great so. The a s m R community
Speaker 1: is a great example of how the rise of social
Speaker 1: media and online communities and the Internet in general has
Speaker 1: transformed the human experience. It was so fascinating. I don't
Speaker 1: know if you saw Iffy today. I posted about not
Speaker 1: ghosting people because people are people, and I think instead
Speaker 1: of ghosting or ignoring someone, you can literally say hey,
Speaker 1: you know that you want to move on? Instead of
Speaker 1: doing that some passive aggressive stuff because that that person
Speaker 1: on the other side of the phone has, you know,
Speaker 1: feelings and value and worth and the world is no. No.
Speaker 1: I was trying to say. I was trying to I'm
Speaker 1: trying to tell the community here as a whole. I
Speaker 1: was trying to tell the community here as a whole
Speaker 1: um and uh that it's the adult thing to do
Speaker 1: would be to just be like, hey, I'm sorry. You
Speaker 1: know I've I'm going to move on from this. What
Speaker 1: I mean here, I'm here for you, and you're right.
Speaker 1: What I meant to say was somebody came back at
Speaker 1: me and said, well, I saw on the Today Show
Speaker 1: they interviewed people from dating apps and they said they've
Speaker 1: ghosted people and it doesn't bother them. And I want
Speaker 1: to be like one not going to take dating advice
Speaker 1: from people on the Today Show. But that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that it's okay. But also if you talk about because
Speaker 1: you can't just use that okay. If you're on a
Speaker 1: dating app and someone goes to you're like, all right,
Speaker 1: we're here to play ball. When someone you know in
Speaker 1: real life and I know it's bad because someone's been
Speaker 1: trying for the longest to shoot a video at BuzzFeed
Speaker 1: where they're like, um, where the casting notes that they
Speaker 1: send internally to all of us is like, have you
Speaker 1: ghosted someone? I'm doing a video where people like go
Speaker 1: up to the person that they've ghosted and like, you know,
Speaker 1: basically confronted and apologize and stuff. And that person has
Speaker 1: been trying to shoot that video for like I think
Speaker 1: at least two months now, because no one who wants
Speaker 1: to admit that. Yeah. Yeah, But what I was going
Speaker 1: to say is because they said that this has transformed
Speaker 1: the human experience, and I was going to say that
Speaker 1: person said, now we're really antisocial. That was their response
Speaker 1: to me about why people ghost or whatever, which I'm
Speaker 1: not disagreeing with, but because they're saying that people ghost
Speaker 1: because we're antisocial. Yeah, And I think that's one of
Speaker 1: those things where it's like, yeah, you kind of have
Speaker 1: to get over it. You can't, Like I, I feel
Speaker 1: like we're allowing too many excuses. I agree. Um, And
Speaker 1: so what I was gonna say this relates in some
Speaker 1: way to a sm R is that I think the
Speaker 1: sounds of human touch. That's so this is like a
Speaker 1: Black Mirror episode. I think the sounds of human touch. Um,
Speaker 1: something about that that has that side of the human
Speaker 1: experience that even though you might people might be antisocial,
Speaker 1: they're able to find some comfort in. That's why now
Speaker 1: we've seen the rise of like professional snugglers, which is
Speaker 1: another thing that I've not smugglers. Snugglers that I've tweeted about,
Speaker 1: and people like that's a thing. It is a thing
Speaker 1: where you can pay someone to cuddle. When I made
Speaker 1: a joke about it, I don't think the men that
Speaker 1: wrote me understood what cuddling means. That it's not me
Speaker 1: having sex with you. I don't do it, But I
Speaker 1: just joked of like, hey, I want that as a job,
Speaker 1: Like you know, um, have someone pay me to snuggle them.
Speaker 1: They're like, i'll pay you. I'm like, yeah, you're saying
Speaker 1: it though in a way that you think that it's
Speaker 1: you know, sexual, when it's just supposed to be transact Anyways,
Speaker 1: Frog update, OK, I got terrible news for everyone. Shot.
Speaker 1: They didn't just take your money and run. Now, they
Speaker 1: didn't take my money. It belongs to Etna, the prescription
Speaker 1: the company Etna r X. This automated system doesn't recognize
Speaker 1: your message. Sign into your member website if you have
Speaker 1: any questions about your prescriptions. And it's funny to think
Speaker 1: that my favorite, uh not my favorite, that my initial
Speaker 1: message was crazy one. So now it's like give me
Speaker 1: the crazy ones, give me a crazy peel. I'm doing
Speaker 1: drugs anyway. Um So, what was previously private and personal
Speaker 1: is now public and common. Experiences that were not discussable
Speaker 1: have been named and identified people who are alone in
Speaker 1: their feelings as we're talking about of how may it
Speaker 1: be you know, now people are able to share this
Speaker 1: community online essentially. Yeah. So there was a pure viewed
Speaker 1: article on a SMR by Emma Barrett and Nick Davis
Speaker 1: and they're basically trying to show why the recent trend
Speaker 1: could be important and helpful from a medical stamp. Interesting. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and they're saying it's a SMR was previously unstudied sensory phenomenon.
Speaker 1: So and like you were saying, I think it was
Speaker 1: because you know, it's it's interesting because I think it's
Speaker 1: all kind of fresh and new, especially with it being unstudied.
Speaker 1: But I do think it was like this thing people
Speaker 1: would experience and you know, you didn't fit feel a
Speaker 1: need to explain it to anyone because it might have
Speaker 1: been weird or it might have come from, you know,
Speaker 1: some whispering in your ear right before you're about to
Speaker 1: do that thing, and you're like, of course, this feels wonderful.
Speaker 1: You know. Uh, you know what's so fascinating. They keep saying,
Speaker 1: like in this article, it's it's the static like sensation
Speaker 1: across the scalp. You know what that reminds me of
Speaker 1: this same right he whoever feels a prickly things from
Speaker 1: the back of your dad, whoever feels a cleansing. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: you're you're talking about six Yes, so a SMR was
Speaker 1: now just um go SMR. Yeah, this the prickly sensation
Speaker 1: against your scalp, the back of your neck, and at
Speaker 1: times further areas in response. So now so yeah, So
Speaker 1: essentially a sm R like if you watch and we'll
Speaker 1: play some videos for y'all, but if you watch it now,
Speaker 1: it's everything under the sun. It's people like with what
Speaker 1: I've noticed is a lot of women with manicured nails
Speaker 1: because they make that sound like on they'll scratch their
Speaker 1: nails across hair brushes or tap it on, you know,
Speaker 1: piece of plastic or something. The sensation itself is widely
Speaker 1: reported to be accompanied by feelings of relaxation and well being.
Speaker 1: The study that if he was talking about identifies several
Speaker 1: common triggers used to achieve a sm R, including whispering,
Speaker 1: personal attention. That is another thing that I've noticed in
Speaker 1: the videos, crisp sounds, and very slow movements. And the
Speaker 1: data obtain also illustrated that temporary improvements and symptoms of
Speaker 1: depression and chronic pain and those who do engage in
Speaker 1: a SMR and a high prevalence of synesthesia within a
Speaker 1: sample suggests a possible link between a SMR and synesthesia
Speaker 1: similar to that of miss aphonia. Links between the number
Speaker 1: of effective triggers and heightened flow states suggest that flow
Speaker 1: may be necessary to achieve sensation with a s MR.
Speaker 1: So you know that that can be a tip to
Speaker 1: any you know what what would you call the a
Speaker 1: s MR or you know the person making them? Well, anyway,
Speaker 1: that's a tip to you. But here's another tip. How
Speaker 1: about you listen to these messages right before we come
Speaker 1: back so you know where to find us that and
Speaker 1: welcome back, okay, So if you so, I found another
Speaker 1: reason why people thought that a sm R was sexual.
Speaker 1: Is many colloquial and why are you giggling because you
Speaker 1: said it in a way that you're like you were
Speaker 1: just waiting, like as soon as as soon as this
Speaker 1: breaks over, I'm about to hit you all with these facts. Okay, listen.
Speaker 1: So many colloquial informal terms used and proposed between two
Speaker 1: thousand seven and two thousand ten included reference to orgasm,
Speaker 1: and there was during that time a significant majority objection
Speaker 1: to this use among those active and online discussions because
Speaker 1: again people are saying that they just they don't only
Speaker 1: use a sm R for sexual arousal um people of
Speaker 1: a SMR wanting to know we're not horny. This is
Speaker 1: this is this reminds me of the anime community. Listen,
Speaker 1: it's not all tennacle porn. Yeah, it is somewhat technical
Speaker 1: port there was there was that that period where when
Speaker 1: nerdy wasn't InVogue, where like there were the people when
Speaker 1: you you're like, oh yeah, you like that, you like that? Like, No,
Speaker 1: those are two different things. Like saying like people who
Speaker 1: like anim may like hinta is just being like if
Speaker 1: someone's like, hey man, yeah I really like move movies,
Speaker 1: I'm like a cinephiles, like, oh you like porn, you
Speaker 1: like making love to movies. However, by a division had
Speaker 1: in fact occurred within the a sm R community over
Speaker 1: the subject of sexual arousal. So this created a segment
Speaker 1: of videos categorized as a SMR erotica. Yeah, there was
Speaker 1: a video I saw a while back of this woman
Speaker 1: doing a SMR on YouTube where some of the comments
Speaker 1: were very critical because I guess she was like wearing
Speaker 1: like a low cut top and all this stuff, and
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, we feel like you don't have to
Speaker 1: be that sexual, and then there was a fight in
Speaker 1: the community. I was like, let her do what she wants,
Speaker 1: which there's truth to that, but their motives I don't
Speaker 1: think are the same. Their motives are not let's give
Speaker 1: her autonomy their their motives is I like that. But
Speaker 1: so it is like interesting that it is kind of
Speaker 1: something at the forefront of the community. And I wonder
Speaker 1: if that is because you know you, I mean, it
Speaker 1: kind of removes some of the stigma I guess you
Speaker 1: can say around the A S m R where like
Speaker 1: if you were to tell someone you're in the a SMR,
Speaker 1: they'll be like, oh, that's sexual sound thing. You're like,
Speaker 1: you like bearded men eating sandwiches. Um, Well, I think
Speaker 1: actually one of the hugest reasons is because it changes
Speaker 1: their ads. So because now if you are categorized as
Speaker 1: a sexual, it's going to change your your ads. And
Speaker 1: we'll get into that as well. Yeah, so if you
Speaker 1: sent me a video, it is a s MR. Amy.
Speaker 1: This is from November, so not too long ago. It
Speaker 1: has over a million views. Um, it's a s MR
Speaker 1: very intense breathing sounds to relax tingle with me, English whispering,
Speaker 1: and she is wearing a low cut top. She is
Speaker 1: a well endowed woman, which is fine and should be
Speaker 1: acceptable on the internet. I I got ahead start on these,
Speaker 1: so I just want to talk about these, uh the
Speaker 1: specific one because you know, there's a million different types
Speaker 1: of trash comments and you know, I the only ones
Speaker 1: I really want to point out are the ones that
Speaker 1: are like seem offended by it. Be like reap beats,
Speaker 1: Uh said, Uh, this wouldn't be a bad a SMR
Speaker 1: if she wore an actual shirt. But what does that mean?
Speaker 1: Because a SMRs for listening. That's you snatched the words
Speaker 1: right out of my mouth, which is so funny. Uh Yeah.
Speaker 1: And then the one right after that was like who
Speaker 1: came straight to the comments to see what people wrote,
Speaker 1: and it was like, yeah, me too, um, because it's
Speaker 1: like it's so funny that that, like people are so
Speaker 1: mad in their life. People'll get so worked up over boobs,
Speaker 1: which are just boobs, and like half the population has
Speaker 1: boobs and and all of the population uses them to
Speaker 1: eat typically at some point. You know, it's um interesting
Speaker 1: if you I do know that some of the terminology
Speaker 1: change in the a s MR community regarding this because
Speaker 1: it was perceived as sexual. Yeah. So the initial consensus
Speaker 1: among the a SMR community was that the name should
Speaker 1: not pose a high risk of the phenomenon being perceived
Speaker 1: as sexual, and so because of that consensus, Jennifer Allen
Speaker 1: proposed autonomous sensory meridian response. Alan chose the words intending
Speaker 1: or assuming them to have the following specific meaning autonomous, spontaneous,
Speaker 1: self governing, or with or without control. The sensory is
Speaker 1: pertained to the census, of course, the meridians signifying a peak, climax,
Speaker 1: or highest point of development, and response referring to the
Speaker 1: experience triggered by something external or internal. Then Alan went
Speaker 1: ahead and verified it into two thousand and sixteen interview
Speaker 1: that she purposely selected these terms because they're more objective, comfortable,
Speaker 1: and clinical than alternative terms for the sensation uh and
Speaker 1: Alan explained that she selected the word meridian to replace
Speaker 1: the word orgasm due to its meanings to the point
Speaker 1: of period greatest prosperity. UH So, thus create the term
Speaker 1: autonomous sensory meridian response and it's acronym a SMR. We're
Speaker 1: both adopted by the community. And it seemed like everyone
Speaker 1: else commenting on this phenomenon. Yeah, so if we were
Speaker 1: to go back to the actual history of trying to
Speaker 1: track down maybe where it started. The contemporary history of
Speaker 1: a s MR began on October nineteen, two thousand seven,
Speaker 1: when a twenty one year old registered user of a
Speaker 1: discussion forum for health related subjects at a website called
Speaker 1: Steady Health with the user name Okay whatever, submitted a
Speaker 1: post in which they described having experienced a specific sensation
Speaker 1: since childhood, comparable to the stimulated by tracing fingers along
Speaker 1: the skin. Remember used to do that when like they
Speaker 1: would like spell the alphabet or something on your back
Speaker 1: and you had to guess what letter it was, or
Speaker 1: the crack and egg on your head and let dripped down.
Speaker 1: There Actually are a bunch of videos that have something
Speaker 1: similar with running their fingers down their scalp, so yet
Speaker 1: often triggered by seemingly random and unrelated non haptic events
Speaker 1: such as watching a puppet show or being read a story.
Speaker 1: So essentially something like that, like being read a story,
Speaker 1: is having a reaction in Someone replied to this post,
Speaker 1: which indicated that a significant number of others experienced the
Speaker 1: sensation as well. They also talked about having a response
Speaker 1: to witnessing mundane events, and that is a lot of
Speaker 1: a SMR videos. It's like eating a sandwich, that's a
Speaker 1: mundane event, you know, doing your nails, brushing your hair,
Speaker 1: like those are all everyday events that people are having.
Speaker 1: But when you use these microphones that are picking it
Speaker 1: up to the level that it is that you can
Speaker 1: hear every sound and every mouth sound, people are having
Speaker 1: a reaction in their body and or they just find
Speaker 1: it relaxing and or sexual. But if we wanted to
Speaker 1: go further back, a writer, Clemens J. Set suggested that
Speaker 1: the paths from the novel Mrs Dollaway, authored by Virginia Wolf,
Speaker 1: which was published in nineteen twenty five, describe something kind
Speaker 1: of comparable in the passage from Mrs Dollaway that Sets
Speaker 1: is referring to a nursemaid speaks to a man who
Speaker 1: is her patient and deeply, softly like a mellow organ,
Speaker 1: but with a roughness in her voice, like a grasshoppers,
Speaker 1: which rasps his spine deliciously and sent running up to
Speaker 1: his brain waves of sound. You know, this kind of
Speaker 1: sounds like a fan, like some of those Lemon fan
Speaker 1: fictions that I used to read in a middle school
Speaker 1: rasp his spine delicious But yeah, no, that sounds like
Speaker 1: if I was trying to be extra when describing a SMR.
Speaker 1: That's that's the words I'd use. Yeah. According to Sets,
Speaker 1: this citation generally alludes to the effectiveness of the human
Speaker 1: voice and soft or whispered vocal sounds, specifically as a
Speaker 1: trigger of a s m R for many of those
Speaker 1: who experience it. So let's up play them some. You
Speaker 1: think we should play them some? Yeah, so this is
Speaker 1: from gentle whispering a s m R. So you will
Speaker 1: have to, Uh, We'll go ahead and play a couple
Speaker 1: of I'll make sure that I'm relatively quiet. We'll play
Speaker 1: you a couple of videos, and then you can turn
Speaker 1: your volume back down because I don't want to. I
Speaker 1: don't want you to have to turn it up to
Speaker 1: listen to this and then be crushed. Your ear jumps.
Speaker 1: So this is from Gentle Whispering a s MR. This
Speaker 1: is from It has over twenty million views. It is
Speaker 1: a video called oh such a good three D sound,
Speaker 1: a SMR video one of my fades tapping sounds to
Speaker 1: remind me of the sound of to me something Dando.
Speaker 1: So she is this is Danny again. She is essentially
Speaker 1: just using her fingernails to tap a brush a hair brush,
Speaker 1: and it makes that sound. I'm going to switch over
Speaker 1: to another video, which is a SMR ultimate head and
Speaker 1: scalp massage roleplay realistic by Binarial Sounds for relaxation. This
Speaker 1: has over four million views. From Heather Feather a s MR. Okay,
Speaker 1: right there you go. So it's essentially her scratching her scalp.
Speaker 1: This is from a SMR Requests and its face massage
Speaker 1: water sounds soft speaking, So I will say that at
Speaker 1: the start of each of these videos, it's um they're
Speaker 1: speaking very softly and introducing what they're going to do
Speaker 1: in the video. Typically it's going to still really light
Speaker 1: gentle circles, your cheek. She's using am one of those
Speaker 1: poor like an exfoliator, a vibrating exfoliator. Face Massager's I
Speaker 1: used one of these at home myself. I have one more.
Speaker 1: I have one more, which is pretty funny. It is
Speaker 1: one that Universal put out. I think this year was it?
Speaker 1: This year? It was this year. It's the Grinch eating
Speaker 1: a raw onion and her layer, multiple layers. I think
Speaker 1: I need to have a nipple. Oh my god, it's
Speaker 1: just him staring at the camera. Why eating an onion?
Speaker 1: But do you hear all those sounds? Okay, so this
Speaker 1: is Danny. I'm going to stop the videos now and
Speaker 1: we can turn the volume back up. Do you hear
Speaker 1: all of those sounds? So when he was taking that bite,
Speaker 1: like each of those little like crevice is essentially all
Speaker 1: of those little raspy sounds. That is what people enjoy.
Speaker 1: I mean, they enjoy so many different aspects of a SMR.
Speaker 1: But essentially, if you're making an a SMR video, that
Speaker 1: is what you're all the different sounds, The crispness, I guess,
Speaker 1: is what I'm trying to say. Yeah, it's like like
Speaker 1: they say, or like Danny was saying earlier, is that
Speaker 1: you know those sounds. A lot of the sounds are
Speaker 1: oftentimes ones that are that can be linked to physical touch,
Speaker 1: just like the head scratching one from earlier and on
Speaker 1: and so forth. So you know, anything that almost has
Speaker 1: a tactile feel to the sound is is let people
Speaker 1: go crazy. So here's one trying a smart for the
Speaker 1: first time with my dad. It seems very on brand
Speaker 1: for me. Um. So we're gonna take a break and
Speaker 1: when we come back, we'll talk about some of the
Speaker 1: health benefits that they've found from a smart. Right after
Speaker 1: these messages and we're back. And uh, I realized because
Speaker 1: I was talking with Iffy during the break about how
Speaker 1: I mentioned that the front pagers all women. What I
Speaker 1: meant to say is I think that a lot of
Speaker 1: times women like we see with the cosplay community with women,
Speaker 1: is any time that they do anything like that, it's
Speaker 1: automatically categorized as sexual. Um So I understand their argument.
Speaker 1: And there you know that just because these women are
Speaker 1: speaking softly into microphone or tapping a hair brush or
Speaker 1: you know, whatever they're doing, it's seen as um as sexual,
Speaker 1: even though that might not be their intent. A lot
Speaker 1: of them do say like so this front page that
Speaker 1: I'm looking at says a SMR Christmas triggers to help
Speaker 1: you sleep, a sm R relaxing triggers to help you sleep.
Speaker 1: So you know, even though some of them are clearly
Speaker 1: labeled to help you sleep, it doesn't mean that everyone's
Speaker 1: gonna use them the same way, I guess. So just
Speaker 1: something I wanted to point out, and that they've been
Speaker 1: doing studies that a SMR is actually helpful to people's health.
Speaker 1: So Forbes reported that researchers from the University of Sheffield
Speaker 1: in the United Kingdom wanted to find out whether a
Speaker 1: SMR tingles might also confer other benefits or it's just
Speaker 1: all about the feeling, and to investigate they conducted a
Speaker 1: two part study. So in the first part, more than
Speaker 1: a thousand people watched a s m R triggering videos
Speaker 1: and other videos without a sm R elements, and then
Speaker 1: they completed an online survey the frequency of their sensations
Speaker 1: while why watching the videos and their emotional responses such
Speaker 1: as excitement, calmness, sadness, etcetera. And people who watched the
Speaker 1: SMR videos answered follow up questions about which part of
Speaker 1: the videos induced the sensations. The results showed that the
Speaker 1: participants who experienced the most frequent A SMR sensations also
Speaker 1: reported the highest levels of excitement and calmness. Conversely, they
Speaker 1: also said they experienced the lowest levels of sadness and
Speaker 1: feelings of stress. Fascinating because it is calming, it is relaxing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And the next part of the study moved the experiments
Speaker 1: into a lab to more closely control the conditions that
Speaker 1: they were gonna put them under, and researchers recruited a
Speaker 1: mix of ten A SMR and non A SMR experience
Speaker 1: participants that took baseline measurements of their heart rates skin
Speaker 1: conductance responses a way to basically measure your emotional arousal.
Speaker 1: The participants then watched the A SMR and control videos
Speaker 1: and in the first part of the study, reported on
Speaker 1: the frequency of the sensation. Then the researchers measured their
Speaker 1: heart rates and skin conductance responses again while they watched
Speaker 1: the videos to compare against the baseline measurements. The results
Speaker 1: ended up showing that the participants with the history of
Speaker 1: experiencing A s MR sensations had a significantly lower heart
Speaker 1: rate and average of three point four teen beats per
Speaker 1: minute lower when watching a SMR videos than those who
Speaker 1: hadn't previously experienced the sensation. Then those who hadn't previously
Speaker 1: experienced the sensations. The a SMR experiencing participants also had
Speaker 1: a higher reading on the skin conduction on the skin
Speaker 1: conductance test, indicating greater emotional responses. Results across both parts
Speaker 1: of the studies suggest that people who will experience a
Speaker 1: SMR benefit emotionally and physiologically when watching videos that trigger
Speaker 1: the sensations. They report at the highest levels of positive
Speaker 1: emotion and lowest levels of negative emotions, and their heart
Speaker 1: rates dropped to levels comparable to what has been observed
Speaker 1: during mind yes, mindful meditation. Yeah. One catch is that
Speaker 1: this all only appears to hold true for people with
Speaker 1: a history of experiencing a SMM. Got it. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: I was going to say some of these I don't.
Speaker 1: I don't listen to a sm R, but I do
Speaker 1: do hypnosis and uh meditation. I have a meditation app
Speaker 1: called Calm, which I highly recommend because I hate meditating.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people that it's so everyone's like
Speaker 1: just doing it's so easy. No, it's not being alone
Speaker 1: with your thoughts, sitting sitting, still for ten minutes is torture.
Speaker 1: But calm app I feel like helps a lot because
Speaker 1: they'll kind of talk you through it. Um. But I
Speaker 1: also do hypnosis, and there's a lot of hypnosis if
Speaker 1: you're interested on YouTube, and it's kind of similar a
Speaker 1: little bit different, but it is someone kind of whispering
Speaker 1: because I'll do hypnosis for sleep, um, and it's supposed
Speaker 1: to help you relax. They'll they will walk, they'll do
Speaker 1: a body scan sometimes while they'll walk you through your body,
Speaker 1: relaxing different parts of your body to help you sleep. Uh.
Speaker 1: And since they are whispering, it is somewhat similar. So
Speaker 1: that is really fascinating for me. Someone that said that
Speaker 1: they didn't like a SMR to find out that people
Speaker 1: that are doing it have these instances of positive emotions
Speaker 1: and lower levels of negativity. I might need to get
Speaker 1: on it and or start my own account. I can
Speaker 1: help you find your trigger. I can help you find
Speaker 1: your trigger. Dang. Yeah, and you just need to be
Speaker 1: more open with myself not doing anything for you. I
Speaker 1: don't mind it. I don't mind it. Um. I like rain,
Speaker 1: so my meditation apps normally have rain. I did want
Speaker 1: to say. So this was from an article from Forbes. Uh,
Speaker 1: which so, yeah, I did want to say, well, I
Speaker 1: did want to say, actually before we move on, that
Speaker 1: we forgot the godfather of a s m R, who
Speaker 1: is Bob Ross. Bob Ross is known as the godfather
Speaker 1: of a s MR. Um. You know in the community,
Speaker 1: I think for a lot of people that he was
Speaker 1: someone that people would listen to to go to sleep.
Speaker 1: That sounds bad, but not not not bad. You know,
Speaker 1: he was relaxing. He was a lot of people would
Speaker 1: listen to him or listen to his tapes and watch
Speaker 1: him and stuff because he was relaxed, relaxing. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: they they liked his soft speaking and some of his
Speaker 1: mouth sounds and whatnot. Um. So this is an article
Speaker 1: from another article from Forbes. It says, is there any
Speaker 1: money to be made in a s m R. Let
Speaker 1: me go ahead and just skip this whole article, And yes,
Speaker 1: so there's a couple of ways to make money in
Speaker 1: a sm R when obviously having viral videos like the
Speaker 1: ones that we showed you that had like four million views.
Speaker 1: The only problem is is that sometimes if they're flagged
Speaker 1: as being sexual, that can't affect their monetary income. So
Speaker 1: some uh, a s mr r's a s mars have
Speaker 1: opened patreons. Patreon has also gotten weird about their sexual
Speaker 1: stuff as well though, So and again I'm not tying
Speaker 1: a sm R too, you know, sex work and and that,
Speaker 1: but it just seems that everywhere people try to go
Speaker 1: it seems to be kind of blocked. So that was
Speaker 1: just what I was going to note. Yeah, it looks
Speaker 1: like you can also get it maybe on other platforms
Speaker 1: such as like iTunes and Spotify. I hadn't even thought
Speaker 1: of that, but that makes sense. That makes sense to
Speaker 1: have a SMR and those well. Also, it's like it's
Speaker 1: crazy how like you know, once things kind of blow
Speaker 1: up as a way people sleeping, you can probably get
Speaker 1: a SMR on Alexa. I know that we do rain
Speaker 1: sounds because Naomi. It helps her. It helps her. I
Speaker 1: have a question if he's so, if an attractive woman
Speaker 1: is has a lowish cut top and is has you know,
Speaker 1: her her manicured nails and is wrapping on a brush
Speaker 1: or something like that, and it's flagged as being sexual,
Speaker 1: do you think that that would happen to a man? No,
Speaker 1: because I mean I feel like do you can probably
Speaker 1: even do it shirtless? You know, and it wouldn't be set. Yeah,
Speaker 1: now there's I mean, it's very obvious that there's a
Speaker 1: bias against women and a lot of the sex sex working,
Speaker 1: sex work banning across platforms. I mean, like Tumbler literally
Speaker 1: said female presenting nipples, which was absurd because that's kind
Speaker 1: of been the I feel part of of the debate
Speaker 1: behind like banning nipples that was that that's been shied
Speaker 1: away from, is that it's like, oh, you'll bann male nipples,
Speaker 1: but not female nipples. And for Tumbler to just outright
Speaker 1: be like female presenting nipples, which is basically literally in
Speaker 1: that same rule saying like oh, shirtless men are fine,
Speaker 1: just not women. So I think I think that that
Speaker 1: hammer tends to fall the same way, you know, just
Speaker 1: if it's not as bad, it doesn't look that and
Speaker 1: I think it's it's a double standard. It's unfair and
Speaker 1: it sucks, especially in this case where like I mean,
Speaker 1: not this isn't to say that you know, if you
Speaker 1: if you are doing sex work, you should be banned
Speaker 1: from doing it. But then the fact that it's like
Speaker 1: affecting women who aren't even in the sex work industry,
Speaker 1: it just seems like an excuse, and it seems like
Speaker 1: no one should care because the majority of women do it,
Speaker 1: so that sucks. But I mean, like the core of
Speaker 1: that also comes from like SESTA and fosta UM, which
Speaker 1: was the law that passed that basically allowed the government
Speaker 1: to like find and shut down websites if you know,
Speaker 1: if they find if someone is trafficked sexually on it.
Speaker 1: So that kind of closed down places like Craigslist because
Speaker 1: even though a lot of you know, sex workers used it,
Speaker 1: if one person was found to be using it for trafficking,
Speaker 1: then now they get to punish the site. And that's
Speaker 1: just kind of a way to get the sites to
Speaker 1: bully people out of you know, harboring a safe space
Speaker 1: for sex workers to work. I mean, you know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure butchering it. But that's the general gist of SESTA
Speaker 1: and FASTA, And it was voted on because you know,
Speaker 1: people here sex trafficking and obviously want to stop that,
Speaker 1: but it's been kind of used as a dog whistle
Speaker 1: to kind of shut down a lot of safe sex work.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, which leads to unsafe sex work. So yeah,
Speaker 1: so I don't know, it is it is interesting that, um,
Speaker 1: some of these studies that we can link in the
Speaker 1: notes that talk about how it reduces depression, anxiety, panic
Speaker 1: attacks UM, and helps those susceptible to insomnia. I do
Speaker 1: want to say, if you're having better sleep, that is
Speaker 1: going to affect your mental health. That is going to
Speaker 1: improve your mental health. So if you're someone that has
Speaker 1: difficulties sleeping and a smore helps you have a deeper
Speaker 1: sleep and a longer sleep, UM, then that would make
Speaker 1: sense that it would lower your depression, anxiety and panic attacks. UM.
Speaker 1: Also just having a calming I know for me using
Speaker 1: my meditation app, we have one for panic attacks. It's
Speaker 1: like a ninety second or three minute like calming. You
Speaker 1: actually just watch a bubble and you breathe with the bubble.
Speaker 1: You watch the bubble span and you watch it decrease
Speaker 1: and UM. I can imagine that for those that are
Speaker 1: having panic attacks, putting on something calming like a SMR
Speaker 1: and listening to someone quietly, you know, helping you and
Speaker 1: talking to you would would be helpful. So I am
Speaker 1: I'm going to you know, nineteen is the year that
Speaker 1: I accept a SMR and I'm such an open person,
Speaker 1: it's I really should There's no reason, Yeah, why shouldn't
Speaker 1: be in the a s m R community. SMR is
Speaker 1: a fun thing to try. It, I think, uh, you
Speaker 1: know we have We're gonna be dropping some YouTube channels
Speaker 1: in the footnotes for you to check out, just to
Speaker 1: see and you know, this has been a fun one.
Speaker 1: Let us know what your triggers are or end up being,
Speaker 1: or if you found a s m R through this
Speaker 1: episode and found one that really works for you, let
Speaker 1: us know and we'll check it out and see if
Speaker 1: we match up anything you want to plug. Danny follow
Speaker 1: me at MS Danny Fernandez. I guess tell me, yeah,
Speaker 1: tell me what you're kind of? You'r a smart What
Speaker 1: you think that I would be into? Y'all listen to me.
Speaker 1: You've listened to me for almost a year. Now. What
Speaker 1: do you think that I would being? What would turn
Speaker 1: me on to a SMR? I guess what do you
Speaker 1: think is like a welcoming, comforting thing for me to try?
Speaker 1: I guess I don't. Here's one of my pet peeves,
Speaker 1: people eating. I can't. This is why I don't like
Speaker 1: a smart I do not like the sound of people.
Speaker 1: I'm one of those people that like, if your spouse
Speaker 1: is you know, even though you've been dating them for
Speaker 1: like three years and they're right next to you and
Speaker 1: they're chewing allowed apple. I cannot handle it. I have
Speaker 1: to go in the other room. It's too much the
Speaker 1: sounds of people eating loudly. Anyways, Well, and you know me, uh,
Speaker 1: January nine and twentie, Like I said last week, I
Speaker 1: will be at San Francisco sketch Fest doing the three
Speaker 1: shows as it stands that I know of. First one
Speaker 1: being me doing stand up live at the Alumo, second
Speaker 1: one being white women You're techoing friend live at sketch Us,
Speaker 1: and the last one is doing yo is this racist?
Speaker 1: Live at sketch Fest? So catch me there or I
Speaker 1: guess you can catch me later on yo is this racist? When?
Speaker 1: When they released that live that But you know, it's
Speaker 1: probably fun to be there live. Feel that energy coming
Speaker 1: at your face. I saw Childish Gambino Monday night or
Speaker 1: that was last night. It's Tuesday, guys this week. Did
Speaker 1: you feel reinvigorated? Oh? Yeah, that It sent waves through
Speaker 1: my body seeing uh Childish and I'm ready. That's how
Speaker 1: I felt seen into the Spider verse. I felt like, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a reason I'm doing this, and it's to get
Speaker 1: more stories. You know, there's a reason why I'm here
Speaker 1: and trying to make TV and trying to make you know,
Speaker 1: both of us trying to make UM our creative endeavors
Speaker 1: of getting stories that haven't previously been able to be
Speaker 1: told and having characters that don't you know, haven't always
Speaker 1: been able to be represented out there. And it. I
Speaker 1: loved it. I cried. I cried. I cannot wait to
Speaker 1: see it. I was supposed to see it. I ended
Speaker 1: up missing the screening I was supposed to catch um.
Speaker 1: And then in the year in the end of it all, Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I saw I bumped into Demmy actually on
Speaker 1: my way here and he was going to go see
Speaker 1: that movie. Yeah, I was gonna say that. Um, I
Speaker 1: saw it like they So they let um like movie
Speaker 1: critics see it like two months in advance. That's how
Speaker 1: they know it's good when they when something so here's
Speaker 1: just a little inside thing. When something's not good, they
Speaker 1: either don't have a screening of it, or they'll do
Speaker 1: it the week of, like two days or something before,
Speaker 1: so you don't really have time to do a review. Um.
Speaker 1: They let people see into the Spider verse like two
Speaker 1: months in advance. I saw it a month in advance.
Speaker 1: But even when I had saw a bunch of our
Speaker 1: friends had already seen it, like the month before, so
Speaker 1: they were like, it's good. Tell everybody. They even get
Speaker 1: early screenings at Regal for like they're like insider fans.
Speaker 1: I was like, yeah, they want people to see this.
Speaker 1: They're like they know it's good as they should. Um
Speaker 1: cool on ah. Yeah. This has been a movie talk
Speaker 1: portion of our a smur podcast and I always just
Speaker 1: make you view, like in some screen stared