Why do People Wish to Experience AIE Anyway?

You’d think that AIE is just a natural sensation that some or most, or even all of us experience, just like headaches. You think we’d just accept it as a normal response and move on.

But we can’t.

That brings me to the topic of this post. Why are we so fascinated with this sensation? Why do we wish to experience it as much as possible?

Here’s some reasons that I an give from personal experience:

Stress relief and relaxation – I find that when I experience this sensation, it calms me down; I’m not so uptight, and I just loosen up a little.

Sleep insomnia – the above is likely linked to this, as when you’re relaxed, it’s easier to sleep. When you’re stressed, it’s not easy.

Focus, and concentration – it’s a bit of a two-edged sword this. On one hand I can feel focused and I will listen to something that creates the sensation while I work, similarly to when I sometimes listen to music when I work.

Other times, I’m so focused and in-tune with the sensation, that I just close my eyes, and switch off, while focusing only on the sensation, which would lead to a loss of productivity.

Pleasurable feeling – no doubt, I like to feel the sensation, and I seek it out as often as possible, because it feels good.

Side Effects of AIE, or Head Tingles

Headaches. Headaches are probably the only real side effect following a session of AIE, especially when prolonged. The headaches are usually only very slight ones though, and not that serious.

Other side effects could include drowsiness, and this is understandable when some people who experience AIE claim to have been diagnosed with narcolepsy – the tendency to fall asleep in relaxing conditions, and sometimes inappropriate places (remember the film Rat Race with Rowan Atkinson?). Whether that condition is related to the tingles directly is unknown.

Some claim otherwise however, and say that AIE causes a more positive form of focus and concentration. This might have something to with brainwaves, like the old theory that certain types of music, especially Classical like Mozart, causes the same effect.

Taking Names: What do we call these tingles, then?

I often call the sensation I feel “tingles” or “head tingles”, for some reason. It’s just a colloquialism or layman term so that others I describe it to online or offline might understand.

If you want to get scientific, there are several names or terms, and acronyms that can be used as well, so that it will be taken more seriously.

There’s AIHO, which stands for Attention Induced Head Orgasm. This was a term given on steadyhealth.com forums by a poster who reportedly got the sensation while having intercourse.

Others claim that it’s non-sexual, like me, and some were quick to keep the AI bit, but called it AIE instead. AIE stands for Attention Induced Euphoria, which is probably one of the favoured terms out there.

Then I added to that by calling it AIOEU, or Attention Induced Observant Euphoria. I wanted to include all the vowels in there ;). 

Why the “Attention Induced” bit though? Because when you literally pay attention to something like someone giving instructions, or talk about something, the sensation is caused by this, hence “Induced”, while paying attention, or by someone paying attention to you; being attentive. The Euphoria bit is the actual sensation that happens in various intensities for various lengths of time, and the “Observant” bit refers to the fact that I’ve read that we may all have the feeling, but only some are actually aware that we’re experiencing it. What I mean is that only some of us, a growing number of people though, seem to experience and actively try to search for reasons why we experience it. Others may not experience it as much, if at all, and it’s just an excepted response or feeling, like headaches (sometimes a side-effect of AIE).

Another term often used by the Facebook group ASMR, is just that: ASMR, or Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response, which has been further divided to include Type A and Type B.

Descriptions given by the ASMR Group on Facebook:

Type A: consciously controlled trigger of an ASMR event.
Type B: uncontrolled or externally triggered ASMR event.

Envelope goes further on elaborating on why she refers to this term as ASMR:

Autonomous - spontaneous, self-governing, within or without control
Sensory - of or pertaining to the senses or sensation
Meridian - peak, climax, a point of highest development: this is a kinder way of saying orgasmic :)
Response - because both type A and type B events are in response to something external or internal

Other terms possibly related to AIE, or whatever you wish to call it, that I’ve come across include 'Amygdala Clicking'. The amygdala, in the dictionary, is described as a small, almond-shaped piece of grey matter in each hemisphere of the brain, related to the sense of smell. Not sure why they picked this part of the brain, then.

Others have suggested that it’s similar to goosebumps. It’s not uncommon to get goosebumps or gooseflesh during the sensation, and the cold might well intensify the sensation, but goosebumps doesn’t cover the tingling sensation on the scalp, and sometimes on other parts of the body, including the extremities.

I’ve talked about it to some others, and they claim to get the same feeling when they’re scared. But I don’t think that’s the same thing You know that feeling when you get a shock or something and your skin crawls and it feels as though all the blood is draining from your face?

That’s not what AIE is.

You can put your On-Topic Links on This Blog!

After seeing how many people were put off on the steadyhealth.com forums because they weren’t able to link to pages, blogs, or other resources detailing this sensation we feel, even if they were relevant to the topic, I decided I would make this post.

I am willing to let you post links in the comments as long as they are related to the topic. If it has something to do with what this blog is about, namely tingles, or AIE (Attention Induced Euphoria), or AIOEU(Attention Induced Observant Euphoria), then I will let you put links to sound clips, videos, or pages, and resources.

In addition to that, I have started up a page, which you can access from the sidebar, called Tingle Hotspots where I have links to pages on resources on the internet which are on-topic as well. So, the link that you post in your comments, or e-mail me, could end up here.

I will personally check to see if the blog or page is relevant, and if it is, I’ll add it. If it isn’t, then the comment, along with the link, will just be deleted.

I’m sorry, but I have low tolerance for spamming. I am willing to have stuff that’s related to this blog and topic associated with  The Unnamed Feeling however, so don’t be shy! If you have something that triggers the sensation, or some other thing that you want me and everyone else to see, then submit it via e-mail or comment. You can leave it in the comments below this post, or you can visit the resources page where you can post it in the comments there.

Tingle Triggers: Watching Infomercials and Commercials

Have you ever sat down with nothing else to watch, and just happened to stumble upon an infomercial of sorts, like on The Warehouse, or in an advert in the middle of a program you’re watching?

I find that I now  intentionally watch these sorts of programs, infomercials, because in addition to the voices of some of the people who narrate or participate in them, there’s something to be said about how paying attention to someone showing you something or explaining something can actually trigger these tingles or AIOEU (Attention Induced Observant Euphoria). That’s the long name I’ve come up with for this sensation.

Here’s some clips on YouTube to demonstrate what I mean. I’m not embedding them in the site, because you can get into all sort of trouble with copyright and such these days. I just searched for “infomercials” and they all came up.

There was a famous guy who did infomercials and commercials as well as acting and many other pursuits in South Africa whose name was Bill Flynn. His voice would make my head tingle like mad. He was the equivalent of America’s Billy Mays – one of the more well-known “infomercial men”. Unfortunately they have both passed away within the last few years.