Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should Know from how Stuff Works
Speaker 1: dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
Speaker 1: and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant. There's Jerry over there
Speaker 1: eating god knows what for lunch. And this is stuff
Speaker 1: you should know, the Jerry's Lunch edition about SMR. And
Speaker 1: that's the addition that everyone loves the best. Yes, you're
Speaker 1: doing so good, Chuck. I'm sure zero people had an
Speaker 1: a s m R experience just now. Well, let's I mean,
Speaker 1: I need to know. Do you know do you get
Speaker 1: the tingles? No? Not either. I don't even think I
Speaker 1: could put myself in that position where I'd be like, like, stop,
Speaker 1: stop touching the camera that's supposed to be my face.
Speaker 1: Not comfortable. I watched a bunch of these just to see.
Speaker 1: You know, you have to dive in head first and
Speaker 1: really get a sense. And uh, I had a hard time.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting there for too long. Even I might have
Speaker 1: the opposite effect. Yes, there's a very good question that
Speaker 1: I wrote at the end. Why not be freaked out
Speaker 1: by this? Why do the exact opposite and enter a euphoric,
Speaker 1: meditative state. It's a very bizarre, really interesting thing, and
Speaker 1: not bizarre in any kind of weird like, look at
Speaker 1: these weirdos, I want to poke them in the in
Speaker 1: the net kind of thing. It's more like it's a genuinely,
Speaker 1: legitimately bizarre and if we can figure it out, it'll
Speaker 1: unlock a whole other corridor to the brain that we
Speaker 1: didn't really know existed. Yeah, so in true stuff, you
Speaker 1: should know fashion A lot of you have no idea
Speaker 1: what we're talking about. UM A s MR stands for autonomous,
Speaker 1: is how you say it. I went with autonomous autonomous
Speaker 1: I think so, I think you're probably right, autonomous sensory
Speaker 1: meridian response, which sounds very clinical. Yeah, and we'll we'll
Speaker 1: we'll get to that. But I think everyone needs to
Speaker 1: know what it is, uh, and what it is is
Speaker 1: uh generally a video that you will watch online, although
Speaker 1: it's really just sounds, but the way they present themselves
Speaker 1: these days or audio clips and video clips, it's and
Speaker 1: it's not just sounds, it's it's also closeness is a
Speaker 1: big part of it too. Uh. Okay, but it's it's
Speaker 1: a sound. It's a response to sounds that some people
Speaker 1: get and some people don't. UM A tingling sensation in
Speaker 1: the head moves down the neck. Uh. Some people call
Speaker 1: it like a tickle. Some people call it like a
Speaker 1: head orgasm or brain orgasm, a tickle in your skull. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So then that is triggered by hearing certain sounds like
Speaker 1: whispering voices or seeing repetitive motions is another one too. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I think I get For my research, I found
Speaker 1: that it was mostly sound and that the visual component
Speaker 1: is just by virtue of the fact that a lot
Speaker 1: of these are on YouTube. Is that So I got
Speaker 1: that from that too. But I also saw that in
Speaker 1: one of these UM surveys that said that slow movements
Speaker 1: UM accounted for triggering for of the participants. So yeah, men,
Speaker 1: seems significant, But I get what you're saying, Like it
Speaker 1: does seem like the sounds are far and away, like
Speaker 1: the crux of the whole thing. Yeah, and they're all
Speaker 1: different kinds of sounds. Like the best way to really
Speaker 1: it's hard to describe, is to really just go listen
Speaker 1: to one real quick. UM. It always includes whispering, and
Speaker 1: I think that's my biggest turn off. A lot of
Speaker 1: the other sounds are fine and pleasing to me, they
Speaker 1: don't give me the tingle, But they're relaxing, but I
Speaker 1: don't like someone whispering in my ear. I don't like that.
Speaker 1: I've determined that that is basically what you're going to
Speaker 1: get with a SMR videos is somebody whispering in what
Speaker 1: seems like your ear. Yeah, I have personal triggers for
Speaker 1: that from my childhood. I think pleasant ones no unpleasant,
Speaker 1: which is why i'd have an aversion to it now.
Speaker 1: So I might be an parents. No, I don't want
Speaker 1: to talk about it, but it's uh, it's it's I
Speaker 1: think I might be an l lier. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I definitely don't get the tinkles. I don't get the
Speaker 1: tinkles either, And it's not I don't want to say
Speaker 1: like it's a ingreat. Well, it's not a huge aversion
Speaker 1: to it, but I'm not like, I don't like it.
Speaker 1: I'm not big into it. How about that when I
Speaker 1: was watching and that lady was whispering too much, I
Speaker 1: literally had to rip the earbuds out of my ears.
Speaker 1: Oh wow, that's a real aversion. But some of the sounds,
Speaker 1: like the tinking of a glass or that's another one.
Speaker 1: Stuff like that was okay. It's specifically the whispering that
Speaker 1: doesn't jibe with my ears, understood, So if you're if
Speaker 1: you're still kind of sitting there going huh. Put another way,
Speaker 1: some sounds and possibly some sites actually trigger a really
Speaker 1: unusual sensation in people where they feel like it's one.
Speaker 1: One woman described it um kind of like sparkles or
Speaker 1: fireworks going off in your head on your scalp. The
Speaker 1: strongest one, and this is really really significant to the
Speaker 1: strongest version of an a SMR experience will leave you
Speaker 1: feeling exhausted and pleasantly tired, satisfied, she said, like you're
Speaker 1: just like you just had some sort of climax of sorts, right,
Speaker 1: But we want to point out and we'll get into
Speaker 1: it more later. This is not for the vast majority
Speaker 1: of people who experience this. This is not um sexual
Speaker 1: in any way. It's sensual, but it's not sexual. It's
Speaker 1: something entirely different. And it's also not what's called freezon,
Speaker 1: which is getting the chills when you hear like an
Speaker 1: amazing piece of music or something really incredible has happened art, right,
Speaker 1: that'll give you the chill bumps. So it's not that,
Speaker 1: and it's not sexual. It's its own thing that we're
Speaker 1: just now starting to realize is its own thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty new as far as people talking about
Speaker 1: it and trying to define it. Um. Obviously, if this
Speaker 1: is a a real thing, that it has been around
Speaker 1: forever most likely, but no one ever knew. You know,
Speaker 1: maybe someone in the seventeenth century was like whenever they
Speaker 1: got whispered to, they got a head tingle. And maybe
Speaker 1: back then their response might have been to turn around
Speaker 1: and like bludgeon somebody with a you know, if it
Speaker 1: was you, if you have a hug them, thank you
Speaker 1: for that. Back then they may not have wanted to relax,
Speaker 1: like this is making me feel relaxed. I must kill
Speaker 1: you know, stay on the edge like al Pacino and heat. Sure.
Speaker 1: Why um, but that that that grouping of words is
Speaker 1: very recent. A woman named Jennifer Allen Um. She she
Speaker 1: coined the term. She is the person that made up
Speaker 1: those words. After Yeah, after about a decade of looking
Speaker 1: for other people who experienced a s m R what
Speaker 1: would come to be called a s m R. UM,
Speaker 1: I guess we're not for the internet. People would still
Speaker 1: be walking around either assuming that everybody experiences this and
Speaker 1: not talking about it, or thinking that they were the
Speaker 1: only one and not talking about it, And were it
Speaker 1: not for Jennifer Allen, it might have we still might
Speaker 1: not be talking about it. But she sought out some
Speaker 1: other people who are experiencing this because she recognized it
Speaker 1: as a usual and she found a thread on a
Speaker 1: forum called Steady Health and there are people talking about
Speaker 1: She said, hey, let's move this to Facebook. That's what
Speaker 1: people do these days because that's a non judgmental place
Speaker 1: where everybody can get along. So let's just create a
Speaker 1: Facebook page. So she did in two and she I
Speaker 1: think that year the next year came up with this
Speaker 1: term autonomous sensory meridian response. Totally made up, completely made up,
Speaker 1: but every scientific term is made up at one point
Speaker 1: by somebody, normally by scientists. She is a cybersecurity expert, Yeah,
Speaker 1: which is fine. Like, like she did it to um
Speaker 1: to basically give it credence enough so that people could
Speaker 1: start talking about it without without it being like just
Speaker 1: some weird, fringy things. She's trying to start a legitimate conversation,
Speaker 1: so it worked like a charm. It's a good name.
Speaker 1: I mean that's what scientists call it now, all right,
Speaker 1: it's good enough. Yeah, Like she definitely secured her place
Speaker 1: in history is the the person who coined the term
Speaker 1: autonomous sensory meridium response. So, uh, all right, I guess
Speaker 1: let's talk about it. It's it's a very personal experience
Speaker 1: for people. Um, No one, no two people will experience
Speaker 1: the same feeling or from the same triggers. I love
Speaker 1: this one guy, Um from the BBC. They were talking
Speaker 1: about how like, why is it? Why are we hearing
Speaker 1: about this now? And you're exactly right, it's because of
Speaker 1: the Internet. Even a very small um percentage of the
Speaker 1: population that experience something like this collected on a Facebook
Speaker 1: site or on YouTube seems all of a sudden, like
Speaker 1: a lot of folks, And it is a lot of folks, yeah,
Speaker 1: but not compared to the population at large, right, So
Speaker 1: proportionately speaking, this seems to be it seems to be
Speaker 1: just a very small proportion of of people in general
Speaker 1: who experienced a s MR. Like I don't you experienced
Speaker 1: anti a s MR. Apparently, Jerry, you Jerry a SMR. No,
Speaker 1: she did the head cut off thing too. But there
Speaker 1: are people, I guarantee there are people out there listening
Speaker 1: right now who are like, oh, I've heard of this,
Speaker 1: but I've never tried it, who will go try it
Speaker 1: and find out that they actually do experience as mr
Speaker 1: and will probably email us and be like, thank you
Speaker 1: so much for introducing me to that. Jerry's reaction, though,
Speaker 1: does it seem more like, Uh, don't bother me with
Speaker 1: this right now, unless like, no, I have tried it
Speaker 1: and not experienced it. Yes, it was a please just
Speaker 1: keep podcasting guys. It was I meaning God knows what
Speaker 1: sign continue. Um. So the uh, the writer of this article,
Speaker 1: um got it a little bit wrong here, uh, And
Speaker 1: that they said it's not something that just randomly randomly
Speaker 1: happens in your daily life. These sounds that is not
Speaker 1: true at all. They absolutely happen in everyday life. And
Speaker 1: that's how people know that. They get this response. And
Speaker 1: then the A S. M Artists, the people on YouTube
Speaker 1: that actually perform, is that what you would say? They
Speaker 1: they replicate these sounds that you do here in everyday
Speaker 1: life that give you these triggers. So you don't have
Speaker 1: to go to the barber and get a scalp massage
Speaker 1: every day. You can just go on to YouTube and
Speaker 1: get the same effect. Yeah, like you may have just
Speaker 1: you may be in your break room and you hear
Speaker 1: someone tapping on a glass bottle, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you're sculpted. Tingles goes down your neck, into your shoulders,
Speaker 1: down your spine, and you are met with a feeling
Speaker 1: of euphoric meditation in relief. And then everyone in the
Speaker 1: break room is like, geez, Gary, where did you go? Uh?
Speaker 1: And then Gary can go home and just watch videos
Speaker 1: of Zoe Kravitz doing it in the Super Bowl commercial.
Speaker 1: So let's let's take a break and then we'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk about YouTube and how it's completely opened
Speaker 1: up the a s m R community. Okay, let's do
Speaker 1: it alright, Chuck um. So, like we said, without the Internet,
Speaker 1: we might not have a name for this, we might
Speaker 1: not be talking about it right now, and definitely well
Speaker 1: we wouldn't even have a podcast, so sure that's true.
Speaker 1: We'd be out on the street court and being like
Speaker 1: here read this, um. The Without YouTube though, a SMR
Speaker 1: would would not be anywhere like where it is right now,
Speaker 1: because it allows anybody to to make an a s
Speaker 1: m R video, And honestly, anybody with a decent type
Speaker 1: mix and a mind to do it can make a
Speaker 1: SMR videos and they have I saw somewhere that there's
Speaker 1: something like seventeen million a s MR videos on YouTube
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, but I mean I would disagree though,
Speaker 1: you you there is some skill involved, right, Like if
Speaker 1: I went to go make one, it would be terrible
Speaker 1: and not elicit any tingles. I didn't mean to diminish
Speaker 1: the skill involved. I meant to say, like, because YouTube
Speaker 1: democratizing uh entry to like performances to people you've never
Speaker 1: even met, that's that's opened the door for a s MR.
Speaker 1: Anyone with a skill for doing so can yeah, or
Speaker 1: a desire to. Yeah, yeah, but it does take skill,
Speaker 1: I think. So. Yeah, you can't just be like you
Speaker 1: can't just shout all of a sudden or like lunge
Speaker 1: of people at the camera. What are you wearing? You're
Speaker 1: like no, like maybe like sharpening a knife on a
Speaker 1: stone while you're staring into the camera. That probably not help. No,
Speaker 1: that's a different YouTube channel, right it is, But I'll
Speaker 1: bet it's out there, um, and there is. It's not
Speaker 1: just YouTube obviously. If you go to any of the audio, um,
Speaker 1: they're probably a SMR podcasts. I'm sure there's a ton
Speaker 1: of them. But SoundCloud in all these other places to
Speaker 1: aggregate sound files. There are tens of thousands of them, yes,
Speaker 1: and um, they are extraordinarily varied and what what they are,
Speaker 1: what you're going to see, what you're going to hear.
Speaker 1: I saw one that was pretty great. It was a
Speaker 1: woman eating taco bell. No talking, just strictly eating taco bell.
Speaker 1: But it was cute, like she comes along and she's
Speaker 1: like and like makes this face like oh, a table
Speaker 1: full of taco bell and just starts proceeding to like
Speaker 1: unwrap it and eat it. And then the real kid
Speaker 1: girl And this is what made a s MRI as heck.
Speaker 1: Um there the her throat was miked, so not only
Speaker 1: did you hear the crunch of the taco, you heard
Speaker 1: the chewing like there was a mic in her mouth,
Speaker 1: and then you heard the gulping from the swallow every bite.
Speaker 1: That's a weird a SMR video though usually they're not
Speaker 1: like that. This was a s m R because that's
Speaker 1: a I mean, there's another what's the disorder, not disorder,
Speaker 1: but what's the condition people? Yeah, like that's a nightmare
Speaker 1: off a mesa phoniac. Yeah, this is straight for them
Speaker 1: because usually it's some sort of a soothing sound, not
Speaker 1: the gullet washing down cheap beef. But no, I've seen
Speaker 1: rainforest fed bee. Um. I've seen other ones where it's
Speaker 1: like it was a girl drinking like from a half
Speaker 1: gallon bottle of water with a law of mike up
Speaker 1: against her throat and it was just gold. Gold Like
Speaker 1: that is a thing on a s MAR. No, But
Speaker 1: on YouTube, does that mean like would the real a
Speaker 1: s MR, Like I guess you could call them experts,
Speaker 1: would they say, yeah, that's a s MR. Or would
Speaker 1: they say, no, that's someone that just threw that tag
Speaker 1: up there that has nothing to do with a you know,
Speaker 1: I think what they would say is from what we
Speaker 1: understand about a s MR. Now who knows that is
Speaker 1: probably something that could trigger an a s m R
Speaker 1: experience and somebody ergo, it's a s m R. It's
Speaker 1: that wide and varied, which we'll get to an explanation
Speaker 1: for that at the big reveal. Okay, but if you
Speaker 1: go on to YouTube, there's a bunch of um different
Speaker 1: variety to it. There's also some through lines that you're
Speaker 1: going to see or here in just about any a
Speaker 1: s MR video though, Yeah, whispers like we've talked about
Speaker 1: uh binaural recording, which is that's the one part of
Speaker 1: it I do like I enjoy binaural recordings and being
Speaker 1: able to hear, you know, And they always recommend head
Speaker 1: phones better, the best headphones you can afford. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: to hear, uh, I mean that's why I love the
Speaker 1: Beatles so much. Like to hear sound going from left
Speaker 1: to right is pleasing to me. Hearing a good slide
Speaker 1: whistle go all the way through your skull, fingers, tapping
Speaker 1: crisp sounds, that's a big one. Yeah, like scissors. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of barbershop stuff. This one lady I
Speaker 1: watched was doing this uh thing right and she would
Speaker 1: do it in the left and then the right, and
Speaker 1: I just wanted to throw my computer out the window. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's another thing too, Like very frequently it's just
Speaker 1: a person, typically a woman, also typically wearing like a
Speaker 1: low cut shirt. Yeah. We'll get into that too, okay. Um,
Speaker 1: and the and the mics, and they're not trying to
Speaker 1: hide that. She like she's playing with the mic, like
Speaker 1: maybe like tapping it or doing what you were just
Speaker 1: doing into it, or rubbing it or something like that,
Speaker 1: creating sounds or talk king into it. Soothing, whispering words
Speaker 1: of affirmation, calming words. That part makes a little more
Speaker 1: sense to me. Um. But the point is is that
Speaker 1: it's binural binural recording, so it's like three D stereo,
Speaker 1: so it sounds like you're right there, like it's being
Speaker 1: spoken right into your ear. And they'll some very frequently
Speaker 1: be a mike for each ear and she will go
Speaker 1: or he There are some guy A S m R
Speaker 1: channels go from mike to mike and ear to ear.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty interesting to watch because it's like you
Speaker 1: you get to see how the sausage is made, you know,
Speaker 1: which is unusual. You'd think it would just be just podcasting,
Speaker 1: like but I think from from what I understand, that's
Speaker 1: part of it. Seeing like the fingers like move like that, um,
Speaker 1: like just kind of tapping in a certain way as
Speaker 1: kind of meditative and relaxing. Well, the like I mentioned before,
Speaker 1: the brake Zoe Kravitz, Um, it was very big deal
Speaker 1: with super Bowl commercial, put it on the map more
Speaker 1: than ever before because all of a sudden, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: I don't know however, many hundred or million people watch
Speaker 1: the super Bowl, but a lot of people that have
Speaker 1: no idea what this is. We're exposed to it for
Speaker 1: the first time with Zoe Kravitz on a at a
Speaker 1: desk on a mountaintop, tapping on a beer bottle and
Speaker 1: pouring a beer and speaking into the left and right mix.
Speaker 1: And I think the reaction by a lot of folks
Speaker 1: that know what the deal is is like, oh interesting.
Speaker 1: They put a SMR on the Super Bowl or the
Speaker 1: Big Game, and then people were like, what in the
Speaker 1: heck is that girl doing? I wonder if anyone was
Speaker 1: well assume, so there were probably a lot of dudes
Speaker 1: and their recliners that were liking, I don't know what's happening.
Speaker 1: It's kind of like finding out you get seesuars by
Speaker 1: watching that one episode of Pokemon, right, you know, it's
Speaker 1: good time to realize that there's a couple other um
Speaker 1: things you'll find too. It's apecially like um role playing.
Speaker 1: You'll see role playing a lot in these videos. Yeah. Well,
Speaker 1: the one lady I saw look like she was sort
Speaker 1: of performing as a nurse might m hm, So I
Speaker 1: don't know if that counts as role playing. Was that
Speaker 1: um Maria from gent Whisper Gentle Whispering. Maybe they kind
Speaker 1: of all ran together for me. So she is the
Speaker 1: like the the most popular a s MR artist or
Speaker 1: a SM artist around. I think she has like one,
Speaker 1: like one point six million subscribers. And she does a
Speaker 1: lot of role playing where she will pretend and it's
Speaker 1: not just her, there's others that do this too. But
Speaker 1: rather than just sitting there messing with a mic or something,
Speaker 1: she's got like a whole little set where it looks
Speaker 1: like you are getting an eye exam in an optometrists office,
Speaker 1: and but the optometrist is whispering to you the whole time,
Speaker 1: and it's telling you how great you're doing at this
Speaker 1: I X and you're doing so good it's so strange
Speaker 1: to me. Let's see how these fit. And here's another
Speaker 1: thing about role playing too, is it's meant to be
Speaker 1: p o V. So the camera is your eyes. So
Speaker 1: the the A s M artist will be messing like
Speaker 1: around the camera, like putting the glasses like they're they're
Speaker 1: putting them on you. So they're whispering and they're touching
Speaker 1: you lightly, and they're they're speaking words of like encouragement
Speaker 1: and affirmation to you. And this supposedly is like the
Speaker 1: big one. This is the ones that like that that
Speaker 1: make it feel like it's fireworks and make people feel
Speaker 1: like satisfied afterwards, like from this, what wave of you four?
Speaker 1: Your wash over them? See I see that and listen
Speaker 1: to it, and I think I'm running out of that
Speaker 1: Optometros office as fast as my little legs can care.
Speaker 1: But that's that's the hilarious thing. Like if you step
Speaker 1: back and imagine, like an actual real world experience like
Speaker 1: this should be like is there something wrong with you?
Speaker 1: It's like why are you whispering? Dude? But that's yeah.
Speaker 1: But apparently if you experience a SMR, that would be
Speaker 1: your dream, like, oh my god, a real and tell
Speaker 1: me how good these glasses look on me? Well, they're
Speaker 1: just kind of messing with my side burns a little bit.
Speaker 1: Oh so interesting, It is very interesting. It is all
Speaker 1: generally intended to relax someone, uh and introduce what's known
Speaker 1: as a state of flow, which is you know you've
Speaker 1: heard about artists and musicians and created Yeah, sure, athletes
Speaker 1: getting in that state of flow. It's almost like, uh,
Speaker 1: it's really just lebron kind of kind of like a
Speaker 1: runner's high maybe where uh or if you're creative, things
Speaker 1: are just you've opened yourself up and you're channeling creative
Speaker 1: energy to cross hatchings is coming right out of your pencil.
Speaker 1: That's just and I'm not making fun of that. I've
Speaker 1: I've gotten into states of flow for surely. Gosh, it'd
Speaker 1: be so neat to be able to just trigger that
Speaker 1: or bring it on likely without thinking. Well, I think
Speaker 1: that's why a lot of artists like they try to
Speaker 1: get that through drugs and alcohol. Yeah, but that's a
Speaker 1: that's a blind alley friend. Yeah, it is so um,
Speaker 1: I get you through for a little while, but it's
Speaker 1: dead in street and really it's not gonna it's not
Speaker 1: gonna bring on the flow. It's gonna it's gonna mislead
Speaker 1: you because you'll think you're in the zone, playing amazingly,
Speaker 1: and all anybody's here is like, and you're not supposed
Speaker 1: to be playing like that, So stay off the drugs.
Speaker 1: I guess we should talk a little bit more about
Speaker 1: the you know, when you said they might be wearing
Speaker 1: low cut shirts and the whole sex thing, Well, a
Speaker 1: lot of people see that then see the whispering and
Speaker 1: the touching, and they're like, oh, well this is porn
Speaker 1: of some sort obviously. Yeah, Like it's I've I watched
Speaker 1: a few of the videos, and again, it's not like
Speaker 1: like anyone, like you said, anyone can put something up there.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure there are some a s M artists
Speaker 1: that maybe to get more views, might try and be
Speaker 1: more sexually tantalizing. But like there are all kinds of
Speaker 1: videos out there and all kinds of people watching them.
Speaker 1: Some people may not feel anything sexual at all, and
Speaker 1: it's only central most people. Most people. Some people may
Speaker 1: masturbate to an a s M R video. Apparently five
Speaker 1: percent of them do. Uh well, I guess so. But
Speaker 1: for the vast majority of them, the vast majority of
Speaker 1: people who experience a s M are they say, no,
Speaker 1: it's not for sex, it's this has nothing to do
Speaker 1: with sex. It's something totally different, and um, it's just
Speaker 1: not sexual. So it's intimate, there's no getting around that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And then it's a huge part of the whole experience
Speaker 1: is that it's super intimate, and that maybe what triggers
Speaker 1: the whole thing, is that that a threshold of of
Speaker 1: intimacy is met and then crossed and then there goes
Speaker 1: your fireworks in your skull. Right, Um, I wonder how
Speaker 1: this fix a relationship though, Like, I don't know if
Speaker 1: someone came home and their husband had a an on
Speaker 1: owing everyday thing with this woman on YouTube where she
Speaker 1: was stroking the camera lens and whispering in his ear,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I could see people. I could see
Speaker 1: someone turning to their their spouse or loved one and
Speaker 1: be like, Hey, that's not too cool. Yeah, you want
Speaker 1: someone to whisper, and you're I'll do it. I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to do the whispering or maybe I mean, I could
Speaker 1: see it causing problems. I would guess they would have
Speaker 1: this follow along the same lines of like whatever problems
Speaker 1: pornography would cause, you know, I mean maybe even not
Speaker 1: because it is intimate. I could see somebody being like,
Speaker 1: I'm okay with the porn, but not the p O
Speaker 1: V intimacy of the A S M R. I don't
Speaker 1: know what kind of things that would. I could see
Speaker 1: it causing problems here there. I mean, I didn't even
Speaker 1: see that raised in any article I read. I was
Speaker 1: just kinda curious he just raised it. Yeah, But for
Speaker 1: the most part, I guess what we're trying to say
Speaker 1: is if you're an outsider looking in and you think
Speaker 1: this is just porn or some sort of weird sexual
Speaker 1: fetish thing. That's not the case for almost all people
Speaker 1: who are watching these videos. It's not what it is. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those of the same people who think, like, you know,
Speaker 1: every massage is that kind of massage, Like, well, no massage,
Speaker 1: just to relax your body, to heal your body. I think.
Speaker 1: Also one of the reasons why there is great misunderstanding
Speaker 1: is because of the use of terms like brain orgasm
Speaker 1: or some people call it whisper porn, and so people
Speaker 1: are just kind of they're kind of misunderstanding the lingo
Speaker 1: a little bit. That doesn't automatically mean sex. It's internet lingo.
Speaker 1: Well yeah, and they're all kinds of either articles or
Speaker 1: YouTube collections where it's like top five hottest a s
Speaker 1: m R chicks, right, That certainly doesn't help their case. Also,
Speaker 1: the other thing is a lot of comments will be like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's YouTube super yeah exactly, but um, it's it's possible
Speaker 1: and even likely that these aren't actually people experiencing a
Speaker 1: s MR. They're just going through YouTube looking for videos
Speaker 1: of women with low cut shirts looking into the camera. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and its YouTube, and they objectify women in every way
Speaker 1: possible because you can post a video of a a
Speaker 1: talented um young woman playing the violin and half the
Speaker 1: comments will be about her appearance. YouTube does have a
Speaker 1: reputation for that, and rightly earned. Should we take another break?
Speaker 1: Let's take another break? Man? All right, Chuck? So we
Speaker 1: talk about science. Yeah, let's do a little science talk.
Speaker 1: There's not much on it. No, the first actual peer
Speaker 1: reviewed study of a s MR UM. It was published
Speaker 1: as recently as two thousand fifteen from Swansea University or Swansea?
Speaker 1: Do you know how to say that? I don't know.
Speaker 1: I've always said Swansea, but I just realized I could
Speaker 1: be wrong. So let's say that I believe if it's
Speaker 1: in the UK. UM, So let's just say Dorchestershire. UM.
Speaker 1: They did a puero. Well, a couple of researchers brought
Speaker 1: in Davis did a survey of a s MR experiencers,
Speaker 1: experiencers and UM just tried to at least do the
Speaker 1: most basic foundational groundwork of describing whether UM. And they
Speaker 1: did a pretty good job too. You see, this referenced
Speaker 1: a lot, not a lot of criticisms of it, but
Speaker 1: they found I think like a few hundred. I can't
Speaker 1: find the number right now, but they there it was
Speaker 1: a decent population size of people who experience a SMR,
Speaker 1: and they said, well, why do you do this? Like,
Speaker 1: what do you get out of this? Is I probably
Speaker 1: the question they asked first, and then problem, what triggers this? Right?
Speaker 1: And um, they found that ninety eight percent of people
Speaker 1: who watch a s MR videos seek out these experiences
Speaker 1: on YouTube do it for relaxation. Almost everybody, Yeah, which
Speaker 1: says a lot because again, when you think of this,
Speaker 1: um from an outsider's view, you're like, oh, it's arousing,
Speaker 1: it's it's titillating. It puts you on edge, like you
Speaker 1: know when you hear a music crescendo or something like that.
Speaker 1: Apparently it doesn't do that. It gives you tingles. But
Speaker 1: it also is meditative and relaxing, which is I've never
Speaker 1: experienced anything like that, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 1: it's really its own thing. So it's very relaxing. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: during massage, do you relax. I don't get massages at all.
Speaker 1: I'm too high strung for that. Okay, I don't get
Speaker 1: them much at all either. Uh, And I find that
Speaker 1: I can I can generally kind of go there and
Speaker 1: just like super relax but there's always a bit of
Speaker 1: shame and embarrassment for me, which is just dumb. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah, there's no hold over stuff from my
Speaker 1: churchy upbringing, you know. But you can't even go there.
Speaker 1: I don't even open that door, like sir of the
Speaker 1: the have a wire cable running down your spine is
Speaker 1: pretty much I can't seem to to tweak it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but what was the point of the question. Well, I
Speaker 1: was just kind of curious because hearing how you were
Speaker 1: about feel about a SMR, I was like, just wondering
Speaker 1: if you have trouble with any kind of relaxing experience.
Speaker 1: I have trouble with all of the relaxing experiences. Okay, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, um, yeah, I'm a little high strung. You know. Well, no,
Speaker 1: I know that, I was just I just wanted me
Speaker 1: to admit it on Mike. No. I wondered if there
Speaker 1: was anything if you were like, yeah, but I do
Speaker 1: like a good foot massage. Those are nice, like teet Okay,
Speaker 1: there you go, I am. I am for those, but
Speaker 1: every once in a while you'll get one in that
Speaker 1: like it's the real deal where they dig in to
Speaker 1: the arch of your foot. And their thumb basically goes
Speaker 1: up to your knee. It was like it hurts, and
Speaker 1: it's like a suffering kind of hurt, like like your
Speaker 1: fingernail being bent back, like bad hurt. And so I
Speaker 1: haven't been back since. Okay, So yeah, no, I don't relax,
Speaker 1: I guess, is what I'm trying to say. They're they're
Speaker 1: kind of jeremy really, So no, what about just floating
Speaker 1: in a pool. Have you ever been in a relaxation tank? No,
Speaker 1: that I was wondering that. I've done that a couple
Speaker 1: of times. Really neat because it's dark and it's private.
Speaker 1: There was one experience, I guess I've done it twice.
Speaker 1: Both times you just completely lose track of time to
Speaker 1: do this. It's really neat, chuck um. And the first
Speaker 1: time I got I lost sensation in my body down
Speaker 1: to my central nervous system. So in the water, all
Speaker 1: I could feel floating was my brain, my spinal cord,
Speaker 1: and some of the major peripheral nerves coming off of
Speaker 1: my spinal cord. That was all of my body that
Speaker 1: I could feel at that point. Everything else that just
Speaker 1: melted into the water and into the darkness because it
Speaker 1: is the darkness is complete. There's no light, not even
Speaker 1: a chance for light to come in. It just doesn't
Speaker 1: exist there. Um, and the ownes are just you're just
Speaker 1: in your own world. It's amazing. Yeah see there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, I guess I need to get one of
Speaker 1: those that buy one just take out a helock and
Speaker 1: uh and throw down some money. How much are those?
Speaker 1: Do you know? Probably I was thinking over ten million
Speaker 1: dollars it might as well be. Uh. So let's get
Speaker 1: back to the study that's alongside track, So ninety percent
Speaker 1: for relaxation to help them sleep, seventy to deal with stress.
Speaker 1: So you see a through line here. Um. And then
Speaker 1: they looked at the most common triggers analysis of responses
Speaker 1: found four prominent categories experience, each one by over fifty.
Speaker 1: So whispering at personal attention at sixty nine. That's a
Speaker 1: big deal, it seems like. And what we'll get to
Speaker 1: that in a second, because there are a lot of
Speaker 1: people that think that has a lot to do with this,
Speaker 1: Those people that may not get the kind of intimacy
Speaker 1: and attention they neat like there's a separate track of people. Yeah, uh,
Speaker 1: what else crisp sounds? Have you ever had a coffee
Speaker 1: crisp candy bar. Mm I don't think so. Man good. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have them in Canada. I think you can get
Speaker 1: them at like a like a world market. Get one.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna get you one. You're gonna love it. Like
Speaker 1: coffee stuff, You're gonna love it. And then slow movements,
Speaker 1: so that would be a visual queue like folding towels,
Speaker 1: repetitive stuff. That's so funny to me. Yeah, I like
Speaker 1: repetitive things because I love those. Uh. I've talked a
Speaker 1: lot about the like how it's made shows and shows
Speaker 1: like the repetitive industrial processes. I think that's like a
Speaker 1: SMR show. All right, maybe, but I don't get the tingle.
Speaker 1: It just relaxes me, right, and some people do. There's
Speaker 1: a lot of people who report feeling relaxed from a
Speaker 1: SMR videos, even though they don't have the full experience
Speaker 1: where they get like the brain orgasm or anything like that.
Speaker 1: But it's still is potentially relaxing. And part of it
Speaker 1: is because they're designed to be relaxing. The whispering, the
Speaker 1: gentle movements, the like, like all of that stuff. It's
Speaker 1: it's designed to relax you. Yeah. I found another study
Speaker 1: from the University of Sheffield that, um, that's a Worcester. Yeah.
Speaker 1: They they got people that were verified a s MR
Speaker 1: experiencers and then people that were not. Um, they did
Speaker 1: a bunch of studies, mainly about their heart rate, and
Speaker 1: they found that people who did experience a SMR UM
Speaker 1: they did have a reduced heartbeat by about three point
Speaker 1: two beats per minute. But then they said it was
Speaker 1: no more than other stress reduction techniques like mindfulness or music.
Speaker 1: I could see that, yeah, yeah, I mean they're still
Speaker 1: getting the experience of being relaxed out of it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: without listening to my music or being mindful or anything
Speaker 1: like that. Right, so great, but it still doesn't explain
Speaker 1: the brain orgasm, right, which, if that's not cool to
Speaker 1: call it that anymore, I apologize everybody. Um. They some
Speaker 1: people might have thought early on that it might be
Speaker 1: uh co morbid, I guess with synesthesia, which we've talked about,
Speaker 1: but then they found that that's probably not the case.
Speaker 1: Well I saw that. They think it's because people who
Speaker 1: in this in these surveys um don't report synesthesia anywhere
Speaker 1: beyond the normal amount that you'd expect to find in
Speaker 1: a population that saw But they think it's it's still
Speaker 1: possible it's a different type of synesthesia rather than the
Speaker 1: kind where you taste colors or here numbers. They think
Speaker 1: this is sound emotion synesthesia, possibly so a sound makes
Speaker 1: you feel an emotion. In this case, it's still a
Speaker 1: little weak. One guy named um Uh, he's a neurologist
Speaker 1: at Yale, Stephen Novella. Back in two thousand and twelve,
Speaker 1: he suggested that maybe it was little seizures or not
Speaker 1: little Caesar's which by the way, they're pretzel crust pieces.
Speaker 1: Back every buddy, um or it's just quote just a
Speaker 1: way of activating the pleasure response. Seems to be more
Speaker 1: than that. And also the fact that it only works
Speaker 1: with some people also makes the whole thing pretty remarkable too. So,
Speaker 1: of course, because this is clearly happening in the brain,
Speaker 1: they stuck people in the wonder machine, pressed start and
Speaker 1: look to see what happened. Yeah, and this one was
Speaker 1: interesting because one of the big fine things you know,
Speaker 1: you're starting off with a new sort of scientific study
Speaker 1: when you're big first finding from an fMRI machine is well,
Speaker 1: um people can experience it while in this machine, right, Like,
Speaker 1: it's not so distracting this machine isn't so distracting that
Speaker 1: they that messes up their experience entirely. Well, what's funny,
Speaker 1: that's the second one. The first study they didn't even try.
Speaker 1: They're like, well, you can experience as m R. Let's
Speaker 1: just have a look at your brain without even yeah,
Speaker 1: because they're like, this will be too distracting. So that
Speaker 1: second study was kind of in a way there. That's
Speaker 1: the level that they're at now is there, Like just
Speaker 1: here's this finding, Like you can find almost literally anything
Speaker 1: new and it's a contribution to the field. At this point,
Speaker 1: the science on it is so incomplete now. Yeah. The
Speaker 1: other finding they found was that the brain regions similar
Speaker 1: to those you know, we talked about what is it
Speaker 1: freesng Yeah, is it French? I don't know. It doesn't
Speaker 1: look French. It looks made up French. I know. I
Speaker 1: wanted to say Frisian. I'm a dummy. No, I did too,
Speaker 1: and I but I went, I did, I went an
Speaker 1: extra mile, pressed the little microphone speaker thing on and
Speaker 1: it went frees on. So the brain regions similar to
Speaker 1: those activated during freesan, we're also activated with a SMR,
Speaker 1: but a SMR triggered activity in the prefrontal cortex that
Speaker 1: during freesan is suppressed. I didn't see that was suppressed
Speaker 1: in frees on. Really yeah, so is this bogus? I
Speaker 1: think the prefrontal cortex thing being suppressed as boga. But
Speaker 1: they're not the same thing. I think that was the
Speaker 1: point of that study is they're like, this isn't the
Speaker 1: same thing. It's similar, but it's not the same thing.
Speaker 1: And the freeson um explanation I saw. We know a
Speaker 1: lot more about frees on because we've known about it longer,
Speaker 1: but it's activates a bunch of different parts of your
Speaker 1: reward pathways that are involved in like assessing the rewards
Speaker 1: and stuff like that, and releasing dopamine right um. It
Speaker 1: also like activates the electoral conductivity and your skin, which
Speaker 1: accounts for the chills. But the explanation for frees on
Speaker 1: that I saw is that your brains pattern recognition is interrupted,
Speaker 1: like it's predicting what's coming next, and then all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, the music crescendos or it changes tempo, or
Speaker 1: some big emotion happens and your brain wasn't expecting it.
Speaker 1: So opposite of SMR almost pretty much. And then the
Speaker 1: other part of it is that you are empathetically connecting
Speaker 1: with the musician or the filmmaker whoever, who encapsulated the
Speaker 1: emotion that you're interacting with through the movie or the
Speaker 1: music or whatever. Yeah, this seems really different because this
Speaker 1: seems to be almost unemotional in a lot of ways
Speaker 1: and super repetitive, not like there is no criscindo. I
Speaker 1: think the whole point is that sort of low droney
Speaker 1: repetitive thing, right, Like like with freees On, It's like, um,
Speaker 1: it's like Jennifer Gray running up and being picked up
Speaker 1: by Patrick Swayzy in that part in in Dirty Dancing,
Speaker 1: That's yeah, whereas a s MR is just being knocked
Speaker 1: over with a feather. I think that's the difference. One
Speaker 1: of the a s M artists was her name was
Speaker 1: Heather Feather. Oh that's a great name. Yeah, I don't
Speaker 1: think it's her given name. That would be a good
Speaker 1: maybe maybe so she was born to do it, Maybe
Speaker 1: her parents couldn't have cared less how she was going
Speaker 1: to turn out. So the final thing they did find
Speaker 1: out from the F M R I studio that was
Speaker 1: pretty interesting. I don't want to make it seem like
Speaker 1: I was making fun of it, but they did find
Speaker 1: a strong connection there uh from the study similar brain
Speaker 1: regions being activated as during close personal bonding experiences with
Speaker 1: mammalian grooming behavior. This to me is the explanation. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it all goes back to that childhood Uh, soothing like
Speaker 1: soothing the baby. Right. That's that seems to be the
Speaker 1: explanation for it. That people are um have figured out
Speaker 1: a way to mimic affiliative behaviors that we are innately
Speaker 1: wired to respond to. And that and some people it
Speaker 1: can be triggered just by video and sound. Yeah, I mean, uh,
Speaker 1: we have played brown noise in my daughter's room since
Speaker 1: she was born. And they say that because you know,
Speaker 1: noises like that make them feel like they're in the
Speaker 1: womb still and it can be comforting and relaxing. And
Speaker 1: we've always done it. We use the sound machine in
Speaker 1: our room. It's usually waves or brown noise like one
Speaker 1: of those two things like a nice creek every now
Speaker 1: and then or rainstorm like three. But they're these are
Speaker 1: called affiliative behaviors. Uh, and that is very important when
Speaker 1: an infancy and young adulthood or any point. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: but help that helps you form those bonds which obviously
Speaker 1: when your baby are going to be happening all over
Speaker 1: the place. Yeah, so they think that that somehow these videos,
Speaker 1: through the the calmness, the whispering nous, but also the
Speaker 1: intimacy of it and the the appearance that you're being
Speaker 1: touched lightly and you're being kind of cooed at and
Speaker 1: um um in affirmative words and encouragement and all that stuff,
Speaker 1: that it's triggering that reaction right in the brain. And
Speaker 1: that is what a SMR is. That it's a it's
Speaker 1: an extreme reaction to a mimicked affiliative behavior. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I when I read that, it's sort of clicked. And
Speaker 1: then I wanted to see more studies on like um
Speaker 1: different from a more very types of people that are
Speaker 1: like categorized, Like I would like to see people take
Speaker 1: these tests that we're not nurtured as children maybe and
Speaker 1: maybe that means they would have a really strong response
Speaker 1: to a SMR or maybe not at all. Right, that's
Speaker 1: the thing. It's like, so why why just a segment
Speaker 1: of the population does this work in? Right, that's a
Speaker 1: big arrow pointing at We need further research here, Like
Speaker 1: it does exist, We've established that, but why wouldn't it
Speaker 1: exist for everybody, and then why does it exist in
Speaker 1: the people who it does exist in? And then also
Speaker 1: why are some people just completely turned off by it
Speaker 1: to the point where like you just want to pull
Speaker 1: your earbuds out, you know, and maybe also pull off
Speaker 1: your ears for good measure. And then why some people
Speaker 1: might be thinking why even put a lot of work
Speaker 1: into studying this, It's because it could be like a
Speaker 1: good therapy for some people, could be therapy for anxiety, PTSD,
Speaker 1: anxiety depression. Well that's the thing. A lot of people
Speaker 1: self report overcoming insomnia, chronic pain, depression, anxiety. Like you said,
Speaker 1: like it literally alters their mood, not like oh that
Speaker 1: was kind of neat, Like oh, I don't feel anywhere
Speaker 1: nearest depressed any longer, or I'm not anxious anymore. And
Speaker 1: so say what you will about it. If it's doing
Speaker 1: that for even one person, to keep it up, you know,
Speaker 1: But if it's doing that for a whole segment of people,
Speaker 1: well that's great. I mean, well let's figure that out
Speaker 1: and then we can figure out a way to hijack
Speaker 1: it and use it to treat other people. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: think part of my aversion too, besides the whispering. Was
Speaker 1: I felt kind of silly sitting in the office. Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: hearing this, Yeah, I think you're supposed to It's supposed
Speaker 1: to be more private than that, probably, so maybe I'll
Speaker 1: give it a shot later in the in a dark room. Yeah. Uh.
Speaker 1: If you want to know more about SMR friends, go
Speaker 1: out on the internet right in a s MR to
Speaker 1: the search bar of your favorite search engine, and it
Speaker 1: will introduce you to a brand new world. And since
Speaker 1: I said that it's time for this your mail all right,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna call this uh Tahoe Tessei. Oh yeah, hey, guys,
Speaker 1: I was listening to Lockness Monster episode and was reminded
Speaker 1: a lot of Lake Tahoe. I thought you'd be interested
Speaker 1: in some of the similarities. I grew up in the
Speaker 1: Carson Valley area in Nevada, right next to Tahoe. Tahoe
Speaker 1: actually has its own legend, Tahoe Tessy. Really original, guys.
Speaker 1: There used to be a museum but at close now
Speaker 1: and TESTI isn't much more than a silly little local legend. Surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: it brought in thirteen dollars and touristing come last year.
Speaker 1: I think that lake itself is more interesting, though, Chuck
Speaker 1: shuttered at the thought of a nine foot deep lake.
Speaker 1: The deepest parts of Tahoe, though, are over sixteen hundred
Speaker 1: feet deep. I've heard about this crazy. I can't wait
Speaker 1: to fill in the blanks that this guy leaves. The
Speaker 1: lake in the Sierra Nevada sits at twenty five feet
Speaker 1: in elevation, while the elevation of my hometown is. That
Speaker 1: means that the lake has spots that are a hundred
Speaker 1: ft deeper than the valley next to it. Thanks for
Speaker 1: all you guys, do I've seen you the past three
Speaker 1: years in a row in Seattle. I always have a
Speaker 1: great time. Yeah that is from Evan Hughes. Thanks Evan
Speaker 1: for making that trip, my friend. Yeah, we'll see you
Speaker 1: next year. We love going to Seattle every January. There.
Speaker 1: Keep it up right. So if this is the same
Speaker 1: lake that I'm thinking of, and I believe it is,
Speaker 1: it is also very very cold, so if you die
Speaker 1: in this lake, it can preserve you for a long time.
Speaker 1: That's so much so that they found a diver who
Speaker 1: had been missing for twelve years who drowned in that lake.
Speaker 1: Twelve years later, they were still able to give him
Speaker 1: an autopsy and determine his cause of death because the
Speaker 1: lake had preserved him that much. And there's or said,
Speaker 1: there's like old gangsters from the thirties who are still
Speaker 1: like whearing their clothes and like cement shoes at the
Speaker 1: Balm Lake. Railroad workers from China who had died in
Speaker 1: the lake are still preserved in there. This is the
Speaker 1: local legend. But that divers documented they definitely were able
Speaker 1: to give him an autopsy after twelve years underwater. That's
Speaker 1: how cold and oxygen oxygen um depleted. It is because
Speaker 1: of the debts, they said, it turns out he drowned, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's it. Awesome Taho. We should do a show and
Speaker 1: like Tahoe, let's do it at Lake Tahoe. Okay, in
Speaker 1: Lake Tahoe. I don't know. I thought about doing random
Speaker 1: shows at like weird places. Okay, that'd be fun. Thanks
Speaker 1: a lot, Evan. If you want to get in touch
Speaker 1: with us, please to go onto the internet and search
Speaker 1: stuff you should Know dot com. Check out our social
Speaker 1: links and uh. You can also send us an email
Speaker 1: to stuff podcast how stuff works dot com. For more
Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics at how stuff
Speaker 1: works dot com. MHM