Sound and how the brain reacts to it

[Jatricka]

This is amazing!! I just read all the posts and shook my head in disbelief at what I was reading. I am not alone!! I do have a sister and a brother who have the same experiences and we have joked about it over the years and have wondered about it the same way everyone here has wondered about it. I would love to find out why these sounds have such a soothing effect.. I will definately be checking out the sites given here where I can log in and listen to these sounds in the privacy of my own home where I can drift off into lala land without the worry of anyone noticing... This is incredible!! I'm so glad I stumbled across this website and cannot wait to share this with my siblings..

[Aiyaya]

I would react to bees in a negative way, and I will often grow cold and shiver whenever I am near them, as well as run away...

(links removed ~ Admin)

[catherine23]

I signed up just to reply, as I've had this ability since childhood. I'm now 23 but when I was about 12ish I had my head on the desk at school because I was tired and the girl next to me was colouring in and it had the soothing effect on me. When I was 14 I remember visiting my grandma interstate, and hearing her close the vertical blinds had the same effect.

More recently things that have a soothing effect on me are

Certain voices
Paper folding
Colouring in
Pencil cases
Library book reshelving, and the general atmosphere of a library
Slow page turning; I love story time in Play School
An elderly relative walking around the house doing chores
When shop assistants use the eftpos machine slowly

Just today a shop assistant in a clothes/bead shop had a soothing voice combined with reaching into a jar of crystals.

One of the most soothing voices I've heard would have to be Eckhart Tolle's. An example would be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPg9DnMP2D4

[MysticKnight]

Wow, and I thought I was the only one and that there was something wrong with me, lol. I get that same exact tingly feeling in the head, like a brain/head massage, that is extremely soothing. For me, it's mainly a brushing sound, like a broom going over the floor. Another example that I can think of off the top of my head would be when a horse is standing still and sometimes rubs his hoof over the ground, making a similar type of brushing sound. There might be other sounds that do it, but the only one I definitely know of is the brushing/rustling sound.

A while ago I started playing a game, a Role Playing Game, and as I was in a town walking along I heard a brushing sound, there was an character sweeping the street with a broom, and well, that did it.. Needless to say I listened to it for a little while, and do so since then, whenever I play.

Anyway, thanks, now I know I'm not the only one.

[hannahzarzar]

It's interesting that you all have this same feeling. Maybe you have a better sense of hearing than others. You know when somebody is deficient in one sense another sense becomes sharper. The other idea is that maybe when you were an infant you were exposed to certain sounds that gave you pleasure (for whatever reason); therefore, these sounds give you pleasure. How pleasurable these sounds are to you may be due to the experience you had with them. You could ask your caregivers from youth if there was anything you were exposed to that may have caused these extreme sensations to you. They may not know, for it may have been important to you, but not to them. However, you may have grown up in an extremely noisy or quiet environment that may have made a lifetime impression on you.

[FarwaSyed]

Hi.. There are some sounds which have a negative affect on me.. when i hear them i feel like crying n screaming n breaking stuff n even hitting my head against the wall..
it mostly happens when i hear someone Sighing.. My parents sigh a lot.. whenever they're tired.. or sad or whatever..I even get suicidal thoughts sometimes when i hear those sounds.. but i always end up crying to calm myself down..
Can anyone tell me why it happens to me? and why im not able to control myself when i hear those voices? and what can I do to get rid of this problem?
PLEASE HELP !!

[Patty]

In response to the last post, I'm not qualified to give advice, however check out this article I found. It seems like there may be a name for what you are experiencing.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/hea ... 76780.html

[julistetrois]

In response to the last post, I'm not qualified to give advice, however check out this article I found. It seems like there may be a name for what you are experiencing.
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/hea ... 76780.html

That article is actual an exact opposite for what I experience. And may I say how relieved I am to find there are others like me who experience this extraordinary occurrence!

For me, I noticed this at an extremely young age. My mother was in college when I was a toddler. Many nights I would fall asleep listening to her study. As an adult, hearing pages turning, papers rustling, or someone opening packaging. In fact, many nights, when I am unable to sleep, I can go to Youtube and watch one of their 'Unbox' videos, where someone is opening packaging, and it puts me right to sleep, or certain sounds triggers a wave of an almost-euphoric feeling, I can almost 'hear' a heat rush of pleasurable feeling ring through me when it happens.

I have speculated to myself that this may also have to do with 'energy', or some sort of transference. Because when I, for instance, turn pages myself, I do not experience the same rush. I am wondering if it has to do with the actual amount of energy a person is expending to complete the action? Perhaps I am getting some sort of electric pulse or backwash from them??? Or is that just weird?

[julistetrois]

I'd always thought this was just me... a quirk of my brain that wasn't shared by anyone.
Good to hear there are others. For me it's always another person making the sounds, probably because the state it induces forces you not to think to much, activity ruins it.
I find it to be anything from keyboard strokes to paper sounds, either writing or page turning. Somebody doing paper work and flipping through notes, I'd often fall asleep beside my girlfriend as she studied or did homework for college.
When I say 'asleep' that doesn't really describe it properly. The feeling, for me anyway. is more akin to a trance like state, blissful, peaceful and completely passive. I imagine this is the medidative state some people practise yoga for, or other eastern practises.
It can happen anytime, somebody can be speaking in a cetain manner, usually while reading a list or something in a slow and steady (not monotonous) voice.
I googled the sound of paper and found this forum and I'm glad I did, now I don't feel like such a freak!
It happens to me rarely and I forget all about it until it's triggered again, sometimes weeks or months apart, it happened a few moments ago in the office as two accounts staff whispered and ruffled through some files. It was only when they stopped that I noticed it again and remembered. I can only guess but I think I was like that for a good fifteen minutes, not moving, just listening, when i say listening I mean it in the sense of letting the sounds come to me as opposed to listening with any sort of intent.
The sounds are addictive and if I can't find anything online I'll probably record or edit something suitable, i may even post it on you tube when I'm done, in fact I'll do just that! No reason not to share it....

Here's a list of the things that trigger it for me..please add to it and we'll see what's recurring among everyone...


1. Paper noise...anything related to paperwork or paper packaging.. paper cutting too....

2. Keystrokes and other desk sounds like calculators, measuring, using tipp-ex, etc...soft desk sounds.

3. Whispering...not to me, but others whispering amongst themselves

4. people reading lists as I described above...lists or instructions, this never happened much in school but it did on occassion...

YES!!!! EXACTLY!!!! Thank you!!!!

[julistetrois]

MORE EAR CANDY!!!!! YES!

http://www.veengle.com/s/sound%20of%20p ... tling.html

[Patty]

I think I was misunderstood. The response I made with the article attached was intended for "FarwaSyed". The article describes misophonia, which is a strong negative reaction to some sounds, and this was intended as a response to the following post...

Hi.. There are some sounds which have a negative affect on me.. when i hear them i feel like crying n screaming n breaking stuff n even hitting my head against the wall..
it mostly happens when i hear someone Sighing.. My parents sigh a lot.. whenever they're tired.. or sad or whatever..I even get suicidal thoughts sometimes when i hear those sounds.. but i always end up crying to calm myself down..
Can anyone tell me why it happens to me? and why im not able to control myself when i hear those voices? and what can I do to get rid of this problem?
PLEASE HELP !!

[Patty]

Also, I experience this phenomenon, (not misophonia, but the deep relaxing one) which is how I found this post to begin with. I've had it for as long as I can remember. The best way for me to describe it is as someone already put it - "a brain massage". I have to be in the presence of the person who is carrying out the action though, so I can not log on to youtube (unfortunately) and listen to someone turning pages. So, whatever the biological explanation is for this phenomenon (one I'd love to hear) I would not like it to go away!! I recently had an MRI scan on my brain, which revealed a Chiari Malformation I. I don't have symptoms, and it might never have been know had I not had the MRI. However, I couldn't help but wonder if it is connected somehow.