Musical Chills: Do You Experience Them?

[lisab]

Thanks to Rhody and fuzzyfelt for putting that together!

It's interesting learning how different people react...it's personal, and even intimate.

 

[Andre]

[*]Andre's chill response not just to music

• ...
• duets (?)
• attention
• volume can suppress (?)
• patriotism
  

Rhody... Fuzzyfelt...

Great job both, thanks very much. A few points

Duets, most certainly, for instance a Denver/Pavarotti

Attention and volume were mentioned in relation the The organ symphony of Saint Saens, where the start sudden organ part with a sudden volume increase is chilling. A better term for volume is maybe 'dynamics'.

Patriotism - I think I posted that a bit clumsy with a denying the opposite metaphore, in relation to the patriottic Piet Hein rhapsody but it was intended to say the opposite.

 

[Dembadon]

Wow! Thanks to both of you for getting this together.

 

[rhody]

Wow! Thanks to both of you for getting this together.

Thanks Dembadon. Part of my thinking (I always try to think ahead, it is my nature), is that for some younger folks following, is that, without effort, the is little reward. Work ethic, that kind of thing... setting an example... you get the idea... compared to today's standards, old school...

Rhody...

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Thanks Dembadon, too! :)

 

[hyde2042]

First thingI remembergetting chills from. Still do, but not as much. Ithink it comes from the imagery of the lyrics.

"When it all crashes down
And you break your crown
And you point your finger, but there's no one around"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAGP24eq_0o&ob=av3n

And the last things I got chills from





The latter I think thechills came from the voice/range/inflections

 

[rockphysics16]

Yes. Music is universal; you can't find one person who doesn't enjoy any aspect of harmonized sound at all. For chills, I get them, but that's becuase i completely immerse myself in the sound and let it dictate what i feel. when the song reaches its, peak, i get the chills because that's the hight of emotion. its beautiful :)

 

[SamirS]

As much as music, and special visual impressions can give me positive chills, I`d really like to know that I`m kind of not insane, because that`s what people tell me about the effect of negative chills.

I get them from this things:

- emaille
- styropor
- tempo handkerchiefs (paper, basically). Any kind of paper towel, too
- most fabrics if touched, or beware, stroke it like you would stroke a pet
- pencils, markers/feltpens
- not using moisturizer for longer than half an hour on my hands
- rough metals
- chalk / magnesium powders

and many more. You can see the basic pattern of "things that are dry or sound dry".
If I hear someone using a felt marker to draw on paper, it basically feels like some kind of pain in my head and I get very unpleasant chills all over my body. You could cut diamonds with my nipples. My face actually starts twitching if it is extreme, something friends and family like to exploit for either fun or torture. They sometimes think I`m acting, but it is really kind of painful, or at least unbearable for me.

This is the reason that I always have hand cream on me and if there`s any chance I could be using the toilet somewhere, wet toilet paper.

Is this some kind of OCD?

 

[Willowz]

Bach hands down. He specialises in the chills department.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

As much as music, and special visual impressions can give me positive chills, I`d really like to know that I`m kind of not insane, because that`s what people tell me about the effect of negative chills.

I get them from this things:

- emaille
- styropor
- tempo handkerchiefs (paper, basically). Any kind of paper towel, too
- most fabrics if touched, or beware, stroke it like you would stroke a pet
- pencils, markers/feltpens
- not using moisturizer for longer than half an hour on my hands
- rough metals
- chalk / magnesium powders

and many more. You can see the basic pattern of "things that are dry or sound dry".
If I hear someone using a felt marker to draw on paper, it basically feels like some kind of pain in my head and I get very unpleasant chills all over my body. You could cut diamonds with my nipples. My face actually starts twitching if it is extreme, something friends and family like to exploit for either fun or torture. They sometimes think I`m acting, but it is really kind of painful, or at least unbearable for me.

This is the reason that I always have hand cream on me and if there`s any chance I could be using the toilet somewhere, wet toilet paper.

Is this some kind of OCD?

SamirS, I’m sorry, we divided the project between us, and maybe missed some, and it seems to me that the negative chills are an important part, too. I don’t know if there are better ways to discover more about this, but the paper I linked at the start mentions this investigation- Halpern, Blake, & Hillenbrand (1986), but I haven’t seen the paper, although other papers that cite it are interesting.

What particularly interests me is that it is more immediately tactile than via sound, although sound can be involved too, and the equation of friction and dryness with unpleasant sounds.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Bach hands down. He specialises in the chills department.

I don’t know if you particularly like maths or not, but wonder if that helps appreciating such music. That said, I get Bach chills.

 

[rhody]

As much as music, and special visual impressions can give me positive chills, I`d really like to know that I`m kind of not insane, because that`s what people tell me about the effect of negative chills.

You can see the basic pattern of "things that are dry or sound dry".
If I hear someone using a felt marker to draw on paper, it basically feels like some kind of pain in my head and I get very unpleasant chills all over my body.

Is this some kind of OCD?

Hi Samir,

First, I don't believe you are insane. Based on what you are describing I am leaning towards thinking you have a pretty rare form of synesthesia, I have a co-worker who if she tastes something may feel like it has a shape, for instance, corn, make her feel like she is feeling sanded octagons when she chews them. A mingling of the senses if you will. Parts of your brain are activating, firing if you will, when they should not be.

Do the dry things make you feel sick to your stomach or just sharp pains, with unpleasant chills, and are the chills the cold sweaty type that come with feel sick to your stomach ?

Finally, have you always had these sensations, or did they come on recently ? Any triggering events you believe contributed to started them ?

Rhody...

P.S. Check out this https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=3004716&postcount=289", another example of what I referring to.

 

[fuzzyfelt]

I see I could have been more reassuring, and should have said that I feel same to a lesser degree, like I mentioned previously, and much prefer humidity to a dry atmosphere, and avoid touching chalk or thinking about it if I can.

 

[SamirS]

Hi Samir,

First, I don't believe you are insane. Based on what you are describing I am leaning towards thinking you have a pretty rare form of synesthesia, I have a co-worker who if she tastes something may feel like it has a shape, for instance, corn, make her feel like she is feeling sanded octagons when she chews them. A mingling of the senses if you will. Parts of your brain are activating, firing if you will, when they should not be.

Do the dry things make you feel sick to your stomach or just sharp pains, with unpleasant chills, and are the chills the cold sweaty type that come with feel sick to your stomach ?

Finally, have you always had these sensations, or did they come on recently ? Any triggering events you believe contributed to started them ?

Rhody...

P.S. Check out this https://www.physicsforums.com/showpost.php?p=3004716&postcount=289", another example of what I referring to.

Hi Rhody,

the post you linked hits it pretty much on the nail in describing some of the other "feelings" I have. Sounds evoke a mixture of shapes and colours, kind of fractal, felt in my head. It's really hard to find words to describe of feeling coloured shapes in your head.

Those dry things evoke a sharp, cold burning or painful tingling kind of feeling most strongly on the arms and upper chest, it's a kind of "pin and needles" feeling. I had these aversion to dry things since I can think but over the last few years it has become much more prominent.

Since a long time I'm only able to use biros for gel biros for handwriting. Recently on a seminar I brought the lecturer equipment to use on a overhead projector instead of his flipchart with a marker because the first day drove me insane. After some time I started sweating and couldn't focus on anything at all and actually felt sick to my stomach, but it usually doesn't get as far as this. The difference here was that I had to stay and had to hear the lecture so I couldn't shut my ears close and try to ignore/not hear it (which is what I usually do).

Days of the week and numbers are not associated with colours but with "personalities" that themselves are connected to colours again. It's just as inevitable as if you think of someone you like or dislike, or foods you like or dislike.

I knew that I have some kind of synesthesia since I heard the descriptions of it the first time (you just recognize it) but never connected the dry thing with it as I thought of it more like an obsession, as for example dry hands made me think of dry things which is by the way enough to get the tingling going. My personal horror is me having to eat a paper towel, the thought of which evokes the "pins and needles" strongly by itself.#

And last, there was a triggering event, about 6 years ago, that made all synesthesia-associated feelings much more prominent, but as said I find the effects really enjoyable and so didn't connect the dry thing with it. I was almost as far as going to the doc to see if it was an OCD-type thing but you made me think about it now, thanks a lot!

 

[rhody]

Hi Rhody,

And last, there was a triggering event, about 6 years ago, that made all synesthesia-associated feelings much more prominent, but as said I find the effects really enjoyable and so didn't connect the dry thing with it. I was almost as far as going to the doc to see if it was an OCD-type thing but you made me think about it now, thanks a lot!

Samir,

Very cool, I am glad all of my digging with synesthesia could be put to practical use, thank you for sharing your issues with us. Perhaps your post will help others, too.

Rhody...

 

[1MileCrash]

Notifications that this topic has been responded to is destroying my gmail inbox. :P

 

[rhody]

Notifications that this topic has been responded to is destroying my gmail inbox. :P

1Mile,

You are kidding, right ? If not, use the QuickLinks pull down, under subscriptions, select subscribed threads, and unsubscribe to any thread you wish. I seriously doubt it though, I have 6 gb of http://www.labnol.org/internet/email/gmail-daily-limit-sending-bulk-email/2191/" and haved only used 5% of it.

Rhody...

 

[1MileCrash]

Yes, just kidding. Sometimes my phone gets a notification from here, and when I see it's from this thread, I get sad.

 

[1mmorta1]

I'm not just a math and physics enthusiast, I'm a musician! And what musician doesn't? I play drums(all percussion), bass guitar, guitar and piano. I love all genres of music, and can get the chills from any wonderfull progression. When a progression does half step down in minor scales after two full steps, it actually usually sounds good enough to get my chills goin :)

 

[lisab]

Notifications that this topic has been responded to is destroying my gmail inbox. :P

Go to "thread tools" (it's on the title bar of every 16th post) to unsubscribe.

 

[rhody]

Well, this one is for the books. Recently, I had laser surgery to blast and remove a kidney stone from my right ureter. To keep the ureter open after surgery, the Doc put a stent (drain tube) with a loop in my kidney and bladder. See image at the bottom of this post. Nothing out of the ordinary so far, right ? After the stent was inserted I was pretty uncomfortable at first. Going pee was even more traumatic (painful), but after the second time I went, something strange, lacking an explanation happened. At first, it hurt as it did the first two times, then at or near the end, I got a huge endorphin rush, and it helped take away the anxiety. The stent was in for nine days and this happened every time I went from that point on. Once I had it removed the rush stopped and everything returned to normal. Very strange to say the least.

Now to my most recent experience, was at the gym today, on the elliptical trainer working fairly hard for sixty minutes, then about ten minutes before the end, pushed to 100% of my ability for two minutes. I got a very big rush (chills) that lasted the rest of the workout, and I have experienced this before, but it was good feeling. I was listening to rock music on my iTouch as well, but I don't think the song that was playing played a role in the effect however.

That's it for now, Happy New Year to Fuzzy as well.

http://img214.imageshack.us/img214/4360/stentx.jpg

Rhody...

 

[fashizzle]

i read some of the link in the OP and it sounds like ASMR, just with a different name.

http://www.asmr-research.org/

 

[fuzzyfelt]

Happy New Year to you too, rhody! :)

That sounds a bad ordeal you've had. Good news that the anxiety was lifted by chills, and hope you have recovered well, anyway. And, in the different incidence, it was related to excercise?

Thanks, fashizzle, rhody and I discussed that privately some time ago and agreed any links would be welcome if it was suggested here (IIRC).