Have you ever seen those ASMR videos online? The acronym stands for autonomous sensory meridian response and the videos are designed to give you a relaxed tingly feeling. They often involve someone speaking to you in a soft low voice and sometimes they pretend to be examining you or touching you in some way. Well, a couple of years, ago I got heavily into watching these videos. They’re so relaxing. I’d always listen to one on my headphones before bed to ease the day’s tension and send me off into blissful sleep. I eventually started making some of my own videos and the first in the series was about me giving a facial treatment at a day spa. I know it sounds strange but this is what led me to study beauty therapy in Melbourne.
I made about seven videos all up about different things like cranial nerve examinations, abductions by benign entities, and head and shoulder massages. A lot of people wrote comments on my videos giving me feedback and praise but the most popular video by far was the one about the facial. It got the most hits. I had my friend model for me while I filmed her face and used a whole bunch of tools to give her a ‘facial’. For example, I brushed her skin with a series of soft brushes and used this vibrating exfoliator to gently tingle the cheeks. I also used cool creams and lotions and trickles of water. The visuals weren’t really important for a lot of people, it was mostly about the sound effects and the description of the sensations. It’s especially evocative if you listen on headphones and get the binaural sound. And that’s how I ended up enrolling in cuf50407 – would you believe it?
I actually loved giving the ‘beauty treatment’ so much that I wanted to do it for real. If the fake experience can be that soothing and euphoric for people, imagine how good the real thing must be!