CHAPTER
7

The ASMR Community

In This Chapter

  • How the ASMR phenomenon began
  • Meeting the ASMRtists
  • Early misunderstandings in the media
  • When ASMR went mainstream
  • How filmmakers have tackled ASMR

They are the pioneers of the ASMR movement—the men and women who, bound by an unnamed feeling, blended elements of meditation, hypnotic suggestion, and sound therapy and gave the world content to sleep by. They are the ASMR community.

The ASMR community did not begin as a YouTube hub for content creators and the tingle heads who watch them. Rather, it was an almost accidental gathering of souls in pursuit of the same spontaneous sensation that offered instant relaxation. In the few short years that followed, the community transcended its subculture status, rebranded itself, and has catapulted into the mainstream.

However, its history remains elusive. In this chapter, we chronicle the early days of the ASMR community and learn more about its development, as well as the men and women who have helped it evolve.

In The Beginning

As you learned in Chapter 1, ASMR is a perceptual phenomenon that is only experienced by some and rarely talked about. During the preinternet era, widespread discussion of the topic was hampered not only by those who felt the phenomenon but couldn’t explain it, but also by those who tried to explain it but were often misunderstood. As a result, the sensation remained underground.

However, with the explosion of the internet in the late 1990s, those affected by this feeling were no longer content to sit on the sidelines and wonder what was happening inside of them. They wanted an explanation for the deep feeling of relaxation that occurred when they listened to someone speak softly, heard certain sounds, or watched various activities, and they turned to the information superhighway in search of answers. By 2007, the first vague descriptions of ASMR appeared on forums such as SteadyHealth.com and IsItNormal.com. It was called a “silvery sparkle in the brain” by some, a “tingling in the scalp” by others, and a “weird head sensation” that felt good by the original poster Okaywhatever on Steadyhealth.com.

As experiencers began to commiserate with one another and weigh in on the shared sensation, it became clear that this phenomenon was not unique to a specific demographic and there was a need to give it a name, as well as a community of support.

DID YOU KNOW?

Andrew MacMuiris completed a brief history and timeline of the ASMR phenomenon on his Unnamed Feeling blog (theunnam3df33ling.blogspot.com).

A Community Is Created

Initially several names were used to describe what we now know as the ASMR experience, and some of them were used on the earliest online forums designed to create awareness and give tingle heads a place to communicate about the tingly feeling they experienced and compare notes about the stimuli and situations that triggered it. The first was the short-lived Attention Induced Head Orgasm site, which was established in 2008 but closed two years later when it failed to attract members. In 2009, the Society of Sensationalists (SoS) was established on Yahoo! Groups. It was founded by one of the original participants from the Steadyhealth.com thread and enjoyed a slightly bigger following than its predecessor, with 15 to 20 members. It was then usurped in 2010 thanks to the brainstorm of a freelance web designer and health-care IT engineer from New York named Jenn Allen.

Allen was 20 when she first experienced the tingles associated with ASMR. She said it felt like every nerve in her body had been activated and she was eager to learn more. In February of 2010, she named the unnamed feeling ASMR, established a Facebook page dedicated to the sensation, and began seeking out others who would be interested in conducting more research.

The result was the ASMR Research & Support Team, whose goals are to “better understand ASMR in medical and scientific terms, to document the personal nature of ASMR for sharing in the community, and to network with other people who experience ASMR.” The team has conducted video trials and issued questionnaires to ASMR experiencers in hopes of compiling the data into a comprehensive research portfolio, which will be used to secure funding for a broader range of studies in the future.

With an official name, a presence on social media, and a research team committed to promoting awareness and understanding, the ASMR network was off and running. The original ASMR threads were archived into official forums (such as reddit.com/r/asmr and facebook.com/groups/ASMRGroup/), ASMR became the subject of several blogs and an early Twitter page (twitter.com/UNFASMR) and an official holiday for ASMR was established (Hug Your Brain Day). By ASMR’s first anniversary in 2011, the phenomenon was also prevalent on the YouTube landscape.

The Whispering Community

At the same time that tingle heads were searching for an explanation for the spontaneous sensation inside them, they were also trawling shopping channels, DIY shows, and YouTube in search of something that could cause their brains to buzz. The initial online options were somewhat limited and not designed to inspire tingles. There were guided meditations, self-hypnosis sessions, natural soundscapes, and old footage from The Joy of Painting (see Chapter 1 if you need a refresher on the Bob Ross show). On March 26, 2009, however, WhisperingLife (check out youtube.com/user/WhisperingLife for her channel) posted a video that would change the tingle world forever.

“Whisper 1 - hello” (youtube.com/watch?v=IHtgPbfTgKc) was a 1:46 clip in which a woman with a British accent explained to viewers that she had always been soothed by the sound of whispering, and when she couldn’t find any such videos on YouTube, she decided to start a channel of her own. There were no images or other sounds included on the clip, but it is considered by many to be the first ASMR trigger video and has been viewed over nearly 100,000 times.

Over the next five years, WhisperingLife posted 156 videos on her breakthrough channel. While some of them include other trigger sounds, the primary focus of her work was the whisper.

DID YOU KNOW?

When she announced her retirement from the ASMR community in her final segment on July 28, 2014, WhisperingLife reflected on the growth of the ASMR community since her first video by saying “It still amazes me just how many people love whispering. Looking back on 2009, when I made the first channel dedicated to whispering, I would have never thought that it would become so huge. It’s fantastic.”

Although she was the first, WhisperingLife did not remain a solo act for long. Other content creators started making whisper videos as well, and it wasn’t long before their work was augmented by those who created nonspoken videos that were filled with everyday sounds. Members of this early tingle community included the following:

Suddenly, ASMR experiencers had a wide variety of videos to meet their needs. No matter whether their triggers included soft-spoken vocals, typing, tapping, hair play, or merely watching someone perform household tasks, there was someone with a camera willing to film footage of it. However, there was still something missing: a content creator who could couple the soft-spoken vocals with the soothing sounds in order to offer viewers a multisensory experience and take ASMR to the next level. It would take an ASMRtist.

TINGLE TIP

ASMR Research team member Andrew MacMuiris preserved many of the old “trigger videos” by category on The Unnamed Feeling YouTube channel at youtube.com/user/UnnamedFeeling13/feed.

The Emergence of ASMRtists

As you learned in Chapter 1, an ASMRtist is an individual who creates video and/or audio content specifically designed to trigger the tingly sensation associated with the ASMR phenomenon. While there are a number of sounds, images, and suggestions that can trigger the ASMR feeling, the ASMRtist typically uses a combination of these triggers in hopes of producing the euphoric sensation within others.

It is next to impossible to know with any certainty who was the first deliberate ASMRtist. There were a number of content creators willing to whisper at their viewers, play with a Rubik’s Cube, shuffle cards, or tap blocks of wood together, but no one called themselves an ASMRtist because the name hadn’t been invented. Instead, they were still going by the term whisper community, after the whisper videos that could trigger the tingly sensation. However, as the ASMR term became more well known, their numbers grew exponentially, and by 2011, the ASMRtist index list contained 500 names, including the first superstar of the ASMR community: Maria “GentleWhispering.”

With more than 275,000 subscribers and clips ranging from whispers, to sound assortments, to show-and-tell sessions, to role-plays, Maria “GentleWhispering” was the first ASMR superstar and continues to be an inspiration to other ASMRtists.

In her video “Draw My Life,” Maria “GentleWhispering” said that in order to find some peace and tranquility, she began listening to guided meditations, and then whisper videos. Eventually, she started listening to what she called “tingle videos,” which led her to the ASMR community. On February 24, 2011, she joined YouTube and on June 3, 2011, she published her first video, in which she whispered in English and Russian while flipping through a magazine.

DID YOU KNOW?

Maria “GentleWhispering” later published one of her most popular videos, a 3D selection of sounds that has been viewed over 6 million times (as of this writing) and remains a fan favorite among tingle heads. It includes a soft-spoken narrative, wooden brush sounds, a scalp massage, and a shoulder rub. You can find a link to the video in the following list.

Maria “GentleWhispering”’s story, charm, and talent for inventive content creation led her to become one of the leading ASMRtists on the web and an inspiration to many other notable names. Viewers resonated with her work and life experiences and were eager to pick up their camera phones and try their hands at creating videos as a way to give back to Maria “GentleWhispering” and other early ASMRtists who had given them so much.

You can check out some of the best-loved videos of Maria “GentleWhispering” at the following links:

Maria “GentleWhispering”’s story is not uncommon, as many members of the original “whisper community” began to segue into what is traditionally thought of as ASMR content today: something that couples whispers with a variety of sounds, images, or experiences. In fact, once ASMR was given its name in 2010, many of the early whisperers began including it in their titles and video descriptions to give their fans an easier search term.

The Buzz Builds

As more people learned about ASMR and joined the community, either as content creators or viewers, there became a desire to get ASMR out of the shadows and into the spotlight so that more people could be helped, and the scientific community might sit up and take notice of the phenomenon and begin to look at it more carefully.

ASMR in the Media

In June 2011, an unknown individual began an ASMR Wikipedia page (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_sensory_meridian_response). Jenn Allen contributed much of the content that appeared on the original site, but three months later administrators shut down the ASMR page for reasons that were never fully explained but seemed based on the fact that there was a lack of scientific evidence to support it. This enraged the community, who pointed out that Wikipedia had pages devoted to God and other subjects that were largely a matter of opinion, personal experience, or faith. Why not ASMR? (The ASMR Wikipedia page was later reinstated around November 2012 and remains active on the information hub.)

DID YOU KNOW?

Devon King, the person who compared ASMR to “Spidey senses” in Chapter 1, is responsible for the return of the ASMR Wikipedia page.

Later that same year, the ASMR phenomenon garnered its first media exposure when someone known only as “dannyboi965” from KRBZ in Kansas City posted a call-out query on an ASMR subreddit looking for an ASMR-experiencer who was willing to be interviewed on air. “Tora_Tora” volunteered and the interview was conducted on September 21 (kcradiogod.com/buzz/ABFMB/asmr0921.mp3). While it did give ASMR its first media exposure, many in the community felt that the radio personalities treated the subject callously, focusing too much on the supposed sexual aspect of the sensation and even calling the volunteer tingle head a “freak” at the end of the show.

Thankfully, the untoward comments did not stop the momentum. In February 2013, Nicholas Tufnell penned an article on ASMR for the Huffington Post UK (huffingtonpost.co.uk/nicholas-tufnell/asmr-orgasms-for-your-brain_b_1297552.html). As an ASMR experiencer himself, he presented a fair piece on the sensation, as well as how he has used it to combat his own insomnia. Interest in ASMR then continued to grow and thrive such that ASMRtist Chris “WhisperingWeaver” Javier established an ASMR Radio website (asmr.fm) and determined that the station would launch its first broadcast on April 9, the first International ASMR Day.

International ASMR Day was conceived of in March 2012 by Ilse “TheWaterwhispers” Blansert, Kelly “MsAutumnRed,” Jennifer “AppreciateASMR,” and viewer Wayne Booker, who mused during a Facebook chat that it would be nice to have a day set aside for ASMR awareness. Although Jenn Allen’s “Hug Your Brain Day” was still in existence, they felt that ASMR had positively changed so many people’s lives in such a short period of time that they contacted Maria “GentleWhispering” and several other ASMRtists to put together another day to celebrate ASMR.

The purpose of International ASMR Day is to do the following:

  • Enable content creators and viewers to meet in person and to share their ASMR experiences
  • Allow content creators and viewers to spread awareness about the ASMR phenomenon
  • Give tingle heads a day around which to organize future ASMR conventions and gatherings
  • Celebrate the feeling that is ASMR

In her 2013 video explaining the International ASMR Day celebration (youtube.com/watch?v=naJubm95jXM&feature=youtu.be), Maria “GentleWhispering” said the event was created to unite the community more and to have a day to celebrate the ASMR experience, as well as those content creators who film video segments to promote it.

DID YOU KNOW?

You can find more about International ASMR Day on Facebook at facebook.com/InternationalAsmrDay.

ASMR’s Spokeswoman: Ilse Blansert

Ilse Blansert, known as TheWaterwhispers to her fans, discovered the ASMR community in 2011. At the time, she was cramming for exams, working on several projects at once, and suffering from a lot of sleepless nights. Though she had used guided meditation tapes in the past, she had become immune to them, she found sleeping pills were no longer effective, and she was desperate for some rest.

After remembering how she used to get a warm, fuzzy feeling when she used to watch Bob Ross or when her grandmother sang lullabies while stroking her hands, she began to look for “relaxing voices” on the internet. Not only did she find old footage of Ross, but she also found a woman who gently welcomed her to a relaxing day at a virtual spa. It put her right to sleep.

“When I woke up I realized that the video had a strange word in it: ASMR. I’d never heard of it before so I looked it up. After reading the definition … I couldn’t believe it. That’s exactly what I’ve been feeling for decades and there are other people who feel this sensation, too!” she said.

After some personal setbacks, Blansert turned to the ASMR community for support and eventually decided to make a video in order to thank those who had helped her get through the tough times.

It didn’t take long for her star to rise within the community. She not only became one of the first ASMRtists to accept requests from viewers, but she was also the first to offer premium-level subscriptions through her website and live Skype sessions. When her fans asked where they could send a financial contribution in support of her work, she also became one of the first ASMRtists to set up a PayPal account.

In October 2012, she became part of the ASMR community’s second chance to appear on broadcast media. This time, the event took place in Europe on the Dutch television program De Wereld Draait Door (The World Keeps Turning). Blansert and another content creator, Jolien “Relaxingsounds92,” appeared on the show to explain to the host what ASMR tingles are and why they make content to stimulate it.

Unlike the previous interview, the hosts were genuinely curious about the phenomenon, and even though some good-natured humor was involved, the ladies each had the opportunity to showcase some of their favorite content creators and demonstrate their skills. Blansert played with coffee beans in a plastic sack, while Jolien tapped, scratched, and crinkled for the host.

TINGLE TIP

Ilse Blansert’s personal ASMR triggers can be found on her hour-long video “8 Different ASMR Triggers” published January 13, 2013. It includes hand and camera brushing, ear-to-ear whispering, scalp massage, and soft-spoken accents. You can see it at youtube.com/watch?v=EmR_3pj8MWw.

“It was such a shock to be invited on a Dutch TV show to talk … It’s really amazing to me that the media approached us and we were very fortunate that we got the chance to explain ASMR,” Blansert said on her channel.

ASMR continued to create a buzz throughout 2013, with mentions in magazines such as Time, but awareness exploded in 2014 when an article about it appeared in the February edition of O Magazine. While several ASMRtists were alluded to, Blansert’s channel was mentioned by name. Not since Maria had one name been so synonymous with the ASMR community, and it’s not a distinction that she enjoys.

Although she has been featured in a number of articles, radio shows, and television segments about ASMR, she said she has never participated in an interview to promote herself or her channel.

“ASMR has always been about the community, a community of wonderful people who have always been supportive of one another and willing to work together,” she said. “I might be the ASMRtist who has been chosen to speak and to appear on camera, but for me it’s all about the community as a whole and helping people get to sleep at night.”

Coming Soon to the Big Screen

With so much interest in ASMR, it seems only natural that documentary filmmakers find it an irresistible subject to explore, and there have been a lot of projects in the works that hope to bring ASMR even more out into the open. The following are some of the films on ASMR that are complete or in progress:

Tingly Sensation: The ASMR Story: “After securing funding for the project in August 2013, filmmaker Kate Mull has been traveling the globe meeting with ASMR experiencers, content creators, and students conducting research on ASMR, as well as physicians who have been examining the phenomenon from a clinical point of view. Throughout her work on the film, she has said that she has found a number of broader and more in-depth aspects to the ASMR phenomenon (not unlike we did), and she is excited to share them with a wider audience soon. To learn more about this film and read updates, you can visit Mull’s Kickstarter site at kickstarter.com/projects/tinglysensation/tingly-sensation-documentary-film.

ASMR—A Story of Relaxation: This English and Dutch minidocumentary was created in May 2014 by Jordan De Deken, a student filmmaker with Rits School of the Arts in Brussels, Belgium. De Deken is an ASMR experiencer who was eager to make ASMR the subject of his second solo production. The piece is a compilation of existing ASMR coverage, as well as interviews with ASMRtists, such as MassageASMR, EvyWhispers, and TheOneLilium. In the video’s description, De Deken said he hopes that his piece sparks even more interest in the sensation that has done a lot to make his life brighter and better. He also hopes it will inspire others to see the positive side effects of ASMR. The featurette can be seen at youtube.com/watch?v=8ec9r6lX_VE.

Braingasm: Directed by Toronto filmmaker Lindsay Ragone, this piece (currently in production) centers around the scientific aspects of ASMR, as well as how the ASMR community has evolved in the few short years it has been in existence. Like Mull, Ragone has traveled the world meeting with content creators, researchers, and viewers and is excited to bring the film to the masses. Teaser trailers for the documentary promise a tantalizing glimpse into the lives of the ASMRtists (who are a unique collection of globally scattered BFFs), as well as the viewers, who say that these content creators help them feel a little less alone in the world. For more information, visit braingasm-film.com.

DID YOU KNOW?

For the first planned ASMR documentary, which mentioned in a post on the Unnamed Feeling blog, an ASMR experiencer and filmmaker from the UK was planning to create a documentary on the ASMR community. Tingle heads and content creators were encouraged to find out more about the project through the ASMR Facebook Group page, but it is unclear whether the project got off the ground, if it is still in production, or has ever been completed.

The Least You Need to Know

  • The first “whispers” of ASMR began in 2007, when descriptions of the experience began to appear in online forums.
  • ASMR went through a number of names before being christened in 2010 by Jenn Allen.
  • Maria “GentleWhispering” is considered to be one of the most influential ASMRtists.
  • As interest in ASMR grew, so, too, did its notoriety. In the past few years it has been featured in many mainstream media outlets.
  • Several feature-length documentaries are in the works to help bring more awareness to ASMR.
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