WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD - PART 2

I relate this feeling to having something sour in your mouth that causes your jaw to tingle. You feel this surge of something and it spreads through your head and torso. I used to get this a lot when eating Lemon Warheads. I also get it with all the things you have described. I feel like there's something I'm not searching online that could link me to this more easily.

Nice post. The strongest I've ever really had this was when I was younger. I used to have a private maths tutor, and when she was explaining the sums etc to me I would start to get the tingling feeling :-)

These days I sometimes get it when my sandwich is being made for me at work.

Most of the posts suggest the feeling happens when someone is giving you their undivided attention, or doing something just for you.

I did a bit of research and wondered if it was to do with the Pilomotor Reflex. I get a similar feeling sometimes caused by certain types of music, which I think is the Pilomotor Reflex i.e chills / tingling down the spine, but I can't decide in my case if the attention tingle (what we are talking about here) is the same as what I sometimes get from music. Anyway, might be something to go on..

Nice to find this thread! I'm a 32 year old female from Wales and I've been having these head tingles for as long as I remember.

From what I've read on this thread, my 'symptoms' seem relatively mild. As silly as it sounds, I found myself becoming a little jealous that someone could recreate that sensation at will, and more strongly!

I sometimes get goose bumps along my arms or down my back if I hear a song. I can't really put my finger on what it is within the song that makes me feel that way. It happened today when I played Midnight Train to Georgia by Gladys Knight and The Pips.

I LOVE having my back, head and neck stroked and I get tingles along my scalp, neck and back. But for me, the most intense experiences I get are when I'm having a conversation with someone with that particular quality in their voice. I've noticed it most with people in the caring profession: I went to see a nurse a year or two ago and when we talked, it was as if a sensation in my head just relaxed me and assured me that I was in the hands of someone who cared and understood me. My head was tingling like crazy! She was like an angel and I wanted to hug her! Also, this afternoon, I spoke to a lady on the phone about getting some counselling, and her voice was so soft and comforting that I didn't really want to end the conversation! I have also experienced this through guided meditations and yoga. I'm not very well-read on alternative healing, but the Crown Chakra is based above the scalp and that is said to be the Spiritual Centre (as opposed to, say, the Solar Plexus which is the Personality Chakra). It seems to back up the sympathy/empathy sensation that others have mentioned.

As for synesthesia (sp?), from the little I've read, it seems there are some similarities but nothing clear-cut about our tingly head sensations. Science doesn't have it neatly sewn up for us. We must all be witches LOL (by the way, does anyone else get headaches before a thunderstorm?)

I would agree with some of the comments that it generally happens with strangers or people I don't know so well. I suppose that when you're around someone regularly whose voice you find soothing initially that you sort of become accustomed to it.

I don't get the sensation often, maybe once every few months, but it's such a treat when it happens that I hang onto that feeling for as long as I can by being still and remembering the person's voice to bring the 'rushing' feeling back :-D

I get this feeling too sometimes. I'm 34 and male.

I have three main triggers: 1) being in the presence of authority, 2) being lightly touched on the head or back, and 3) getting attention. Each of these has a few primary triggers and a number of secondary ones:

I've gotten a similar sensation reading through these posts, though that may just be the common recognition thing... The "presence of authority" effect may have roots in intellectual submission or the like.

Sometimes when I'm really relaxed I can do this thing where I sort of shrug my ears and flex some little muscle in my head and get the sensation over my scalp and neck. I sometimes think that this may be related to the secretion of a hormone - perhaps adrenaline - and its localized effect in small amounts. I find that the itching from mosquito bites can have this effect, so long as I don't scratch them.

To give some examples:

1) Presence of Authority
* Sitting in a class at university
* Being examined/consulting with a doctor
* Guided meditation (during yoga or relaxation)
* Taking surveys (either in person or online (paid or not (-; )

2) Gentle Touching
* Being gently caressed by my wife on the back or neck
* Caterpillars or flies walking across my skin (not the biting sorts!)
* Being fitted by a tailor

3) Attention Induced
* Wearing a cast and having someone pay attention to it
* Having people sign my cast (I've had occasion to wear a number of them over the years). This has overlap with the gentle touching as well

ok, finding this post and realizing like everyone else that I was the only one here. My triggers are "innocents". I'll describe: little kids asking for help or telling me a story, special needs people holding a conversation with me, and old people telling stories. e-mail me at if you have any information on this. I love the feeling, but am really curious. Same story here, it started when i was a little kid, around 7 or 8 and has been with me ever since. it only effects my head though. seems like the entire back of my head starts to tingle and almost "float". That's best way I can explain it. Talk to me people. Any new ideas on this? What is it, why do we all have this? and why doesn't everyone have this?


rob,

***this post is edited by moderator *** *** private e-mails not allowed **
Please read our Terms of Use

Wow! I am soo excited I have found this thread and that other people experience this! It's the only real thread I have found so far on the subject. I am a 19 yr old Caucasian male and I have been getting these tingles since I was a kid.

My biggest triggers are a stranger explaining something to me, or giving me instructions. I always got them at Doctor's Appointments as a kid, and Eye-Doctor Appointments. It would get really strong when they would tell me do things like stand up, walk around etc. I have gotten them from you tube videos, and EVEN from reading an e-mail.

Accents, and Lisps seem to especially set it off.

It feels amazing, and I can usually keep it going by replaying the event in my mind.

It is not sexual at all for me and happens equally with males and females. Usually when someone has their direct attention on me.

I have asked friends, family members and everyone about this and none of them can relate. I am so excited I have finally found a bunch of people who get these sensations also!!!

That's so strange but what it sounds like to me is that your brain might be siwtching waves. I have been meditating for awhile and the delta brainwave pattern (when you're deep in meditation) sounds very similar to this. Does that sound right to anyone?

I'm a 40-yr-old American woman, and I've experienced the very same thing all my life - the extremely wonderful feeling of being massaged on my scalp and neck while someone is explaining something. It occurs randomly, and only if I'm not trying. Some little thing seems to make it happen, like when someone has a slightly unusual way of speaking, or when they seem especially sincere, and the less aware of me they are the better. I agree it is something like orgasmic - you would never want it to stop if you could control it, but it's always very fleeting. I have never been able to come up with a theory for it, but my mother, daughter, and a friend have told me they experience the same thing, so there must be more of us, because I've only told a few people about it. My only guess is that we're picking up energies somehow, but beyond that I haven't a clue.

I get the exact same good tingly fleeting feeling as well. It happens to me very randomly and only once every couple of months. Here are a few of my triggers that I can remember:

1) When I was really little my babysitter would run her fingers through my hair and I would ask her to do it over and over again.
2) I remember one time in first grade when a classmate asked to borrow my crayons so she could draw and I just stopped everything and watched her draw so the feeling wouldn't go away.
3) More recently I was at work and an older woman from IT came down to my floor to fix my computer. I got the feeling the entire time she was sitting at my desk.
4) Just today (which prompted me to google it) I was making plans with somebody over the phone that I had never met before from the campus poker club to come over and set up a poker tournament at my residence. I got the feeling near the end of the conversation.

There have been many other times, but those are the ones I remember the best. I think I got the feeling a lot more often as a small child than I do now. I am a 23 year old caucasian male. I tried watching some of the youtube videos people posted to see if they would work as triggers, but they didn't. I am looking forward to finding out if there is an official name for this condition.

My jaw fell to the floor when I found this website. I was listening to NPR this morning and heard someone talking about seizures and then began thinking about this "condition" I had and if I should get it check out because maybe it was a symptom of something serious. Then I began reading this and classical music came on and there was the feeling. Lasted an hour. WOW. I can't believe there are so many people that experience this too. I joined the Yahoo group as well. I have had this feeling as long as I can remember and never could figure out what is was or why but in reading I have been able to realize that all things you guys said trigger it. Narrated documentaries, preachers (that's probably why I like going to church so much but can't seem to live "the life of a christian"), certain people speaking and explaining things (not everyone just some-something in the tone of voice), getting hair cut and washed ( I feel like I'm going to explode everytime), and on and on. Dont know much about the "indigo children" thing, still trying to research that. This is amazing. I look forward to anymore information on this topic. You can email me or IM me on Y!. User name is the same.

28 y/o male caucasian/hispanic originally from New Orleans, LA now in Atlanta, GA.

I too thought is was seizure related and the more I read about Dopamine and Seratonin releases, I'm curious to know how many people that experience this have been diagnosed with ADHD, Manic Depressive/Bi-Polar or both? I have been and I believe it is incorrect. The "manic" episodes are this sensation and sometimes they last for hours and I get a lot of extra energy and don't sleep well. Also how many people are artistic/creative in some form? Musicians, painters, writers.

I was also wondering if most of you would consider yourselves to have high emotional intelligence (I use this word with a grain of salt since there's so much debate on it). As in, able to perceive emotions well, able to feel and understand emotions of others, able to use your own emotions to your benefits, and so on. This isn't asking if your shy or eccentric or any of that c**p, cause that doesn't matter much. From reading these posts it seems that most of the people posting have strong emotional connections to people and things that they do, so I'm wondering if this might be part of it.

For a previous poster: I'm an artist.

i know i can read people like a book. within 5 minutes i can tell you exactly what type of person you are and what your intentions are.

No, I get what you're saying. I think that it could be. Honestly, I think that this thread has primarily been about anxiety, because I've felt this sort of thing before. DOes that make any sense?

Interesting theory that this strange pleasure has an evolutionary purpose. The problems with that theory are that the causes are so vague, intangible and individual, and also that the desired reaction cannot easily be recreated - the pleasurable effect seems indirectly caused and peripheral by nature. So many of you have said it takes you by surprise when it happens and the cause itself is often unexpected. Yet if it were a reaction to grooming/attention, wouldn't it happen every time?