Weird tingling/electrified feeling when relaxing

[thaar]

So I've had this "ability" to make my body, especially legs and hands, to have this weird tingling/electrified feeling at will. It is a rather pleasant feeling, and the longer I "hold" it, the more intense it gets. I can feel myself taking deeper breaths while experiencing it and also a raise in heart rate. I would say it gets the most intense in feet, and least in upper body and head. It feels like actual heath in the part of body I'm feeling it.

I've had it as long as I can remember but never really thought about it or tried it that much, but today I started thinking about it, googled it and found out several other people trying to explain the same feeling, however saw no reasonable medical answer to it, just many meditation-related stuff about this being some weird energy movements etc.

Evoking this feeling does not feel like a mental thing, but physical. If I lay down in bed, and relax my legs, like I do when going to sleep, I never feel it happening by itself. But if I concentrate on relaxing even more, that's when I get it. It's hard to explain and it might sound dumb, but it basically feels like relaxing beyond relaxation, that's when I get the feeling.

So It doesn't disrupt my life in any way, since it doesn't appear itself, but I'm fascinated by it, since after asking people I know, none of them could identify or claim to have had similar experience.

It is not ASMR. That's what many people have proposed but I've had ASMR experiences, and tried it out, listening to some specific sounds with high-quality headphones. ASMR felt like a pleasent tingling feeling but just in the brain. Putting it into words might sound similar to what I'm experiencing, but I'm pretty sure these are different feelings.

So maybe anyone knows what this could be, or have some theory about it?

Thanks!

/Okay so I just found out I also get dilated pupils while doing this, with a mirror. Also, I haven't been able to hold the sensation for a longer period than ~10 seconds. It kind of gets too intense to hold it. Although I wouldn't say it feels like I couldn't. Its just like I want to stop it. Also it is easier to do it with eyes closed, and when eyes are closed they feel the same way as I was concentrating on something extremely hard, like kind of vibrating.

Edited July 27, 2017 by thaar

[DrP]

Pins and needles? Is it very different from how pins and needles feels?

[thaar]

15 minutes ago, DrP said:

Pins and needles? Is it very different from how pins and needles feels?

Yes it is very different from that. It feels more like deep inside and really warm. So I can see why people would identify it as some kind of meditational energy.

[DrmDoc]

Sounds like the feeling one gets from a rush of adrenalin although not so much of an affect on one's gut but more a feeling of vessel constriction or dilation.  Perhaps what you're experiencing is much like what occurs during a meditative state with a focus on your adrenal responses without the element of fear and the mental dread fear causes.  I hope this helps.

[MigL]

Or it could be circulation/blood pressure issues...

[thaar]

I guess it does have many similarities with what many people claim to experience in meditative states, although I have never had any experience with meditation. I've seen some claims of "warm energy" moving through the body in certain meditation state but I wonder if there are any observable signs of something like this, could be just some kind of meditative hallucinations? I do remember reading a study where Buddhist monks were put into MRI to meditate and the blood flow in their brains monitored, but I guess this would be something else.

Or perhaps it really is some kind of voluntary vessel dilation. I will surely be looking into this further, and experimenting to find out more.

[msell19]

Thaar, I am curious to see if you have discovered anything further with your sensation. I have been searching for some insight into the exact same feeling you have! I just could not come up with the words to even begin to google it until I ran across this message board. 

I have not been able to work up the courage to push my body to hold the sensation more than a few seconds. You nailed it.. it feels as though I could lose control entirely if I continued. It’s a bizarre feeling that I’d love to know more about. 

[Joe.nimbus]

On 7/27/2017 at 2:24 PM, thaar said:

I guess it does have many similarities with what many people claim to experience in meditative states, although I have never had any experience with meditation. I've seen some claims of "warm energy" moving through the body in certain meditation state but I wonder if there are any observable signs of something like this, could be just some kind of meditative hallucinations? I do remember reading a study where Buddhist monks were put into MRI to meditate and the blood flow in their brains monitored, but I guess this would be something else.

Or perhaps it really is some kind of voluntary vessel dilation. I will surely be looking into this further, and experimenting to find out more.

I know the exact feeling you’re describing, I know I’m a year late in finding this thread. I also have the same feeling, mainly in my feet and legs. I’ve tried to somewhat “meditate” on it and focus on other muscles to do the same thing. So far I seem to slightly feel it in my upper back and trap area. If you have found anything out about it I’m curious.

[Juan Sotelo]

Ah yes, I've had the exact same feeling and I describe it as "intense relaxation" and yea I've heard all the other mumbo jumbo about deep meditation and asmr, the first time this happened to me I hadn't slept for days and I was very tired, when I laid, I was so lax that my my body (especially my legs) was tingling and the more i did it the more intense it became, text my kik(rubykross) if you'd wanna talk about it 

[DrP]

You can feel all sorts of different things all over your body if you concentrate and imagine stuff. I assume people that do Tai Chi confuse these physical feelings as energy moving through them or other such misunderstandings. The body and mind are complex. Blood sugar and energy levels could play a part. As I said - the body is complex. Don't confuse stuff you don't understand with spiritual or mystical BS - many things are unexplained - that doesn't make all the esoteric balls that gets put forwards as explanation true. 

[Scott of the Antares]

I am a keen martial artist and a long time ago a read some rather unscientific claims regarding esoteric martial arts. I sceptically took one up and can confirm that after years of practice, these sensations are all part and parcel of these arts.

I regard it like any other repeatable practice in the fact that you follow the exercises and observe the results. It takes many years of dedicated practice to start feel direct these sensations in any meaningful way.

Just like somebody posted a week or two ago; to be able to understand all that science offers you probably need 10 years of dedicated practice. If any of us practiced in these arts for 10 years, I am sure we could attest to the validity of these ‘sensations’.

Edited June 15, 2018 by Scott of the Antares

[Truthnuggets]

I've literally just created an account so I can respond to this thread. I know exactly the sensation about which you're talking and I don't believe it is anything spiritual and nor have I ever encountered another word to describe it.

I feel it most in my calves and feet but, if I hold it for long enough ( and i struggle around the 10 sec mark) i feel it in my fingers and sinuses. It feels like opening up, so to speak. I have to consciously make it happen and if i do it a few times i usually have to 'recharge' to do it again. 

I'm amazed I've been able to find anyone talking about this so quickly via Google! 

I would love to find out more about it but it seems like something that is so obscure and impossible to quantify that there probably is no research on it. Glad to know I'm not alone.

[mistermack]

It could be some kind of early signs of epilepsy, or something similar, but below the threshold of actual fits. 

When I was in my early teens, I had odd episodes that were set off by lying on my back and looking at the light bulb in my bedroom. I would get a kind of aura, and it was the smooth curves of the lightbulb shape that instigated a rather horrible feeling of sliding sideways on ice, and the lightbulb shape would contort and twist as the feeling got stronger. I would always snap out of it, at that point, but it was a really horrible feeling, that I was losing control. 

Just once, it became so horrible, that I jumped out of bed and ran downstairs, and found myself shaking in the living room, before I got out of it.

I suppose it could have been a recurring dream, but I would have sworn at the time that I was fully conscious the whole time, although obviously a different state of consciousness. 

But whatever it was, it was very scary and unpleasant, and I'm glad that it faded and didn't persist.

[thaar]

Checking back, a year later, as I see some people know exactly the feeling I'm talking about.

I have however found nothing conclusive, only speculations. Some think it's like a voluntary release of adrenaline, or manipulating the nervous system etc. I found one post that claimed to have ran some tests aswell:

"I have been practicing western medicine for 30 years and for a change also just completed my masters in Oriental Medicine (2014). [We] have for years used different equipment to play with my "ability" while in the ER/OR/Office while no patients: 
PulseOX, EEG, EKG, spirometry.The fact is, it is an instantaneous- literally as fast as thought phenomena/ability that can send my HR up to 200bpm is seconds, all while maintaining a NSR-normal sinus rhythm (PQRST remains unremarkable, otherwise); it is simple tachycardia. The pulse ox remains saturated and whereas the BP may raise to over 160/96 within seconds, the arterial pressure at rest does not substantially rise.
I have always asserted (the reason is lost with age) that I "squeeze" my adrenal glands. It does not matter that western medicine says that this is not possible. What matters is the similar reports from disparate people all around the world. We are all describing something similar. Variously, some report that they are squeezing something in their head. Perhaps this is due to the incredible electric-like sensation tingling around the neck, head, and shoulders, pupils changing size, regardless of light conditions.
My breathing does not change and while my tidal volume remains the same we once calculated that my stroke volume for cardiac output only begins to become effected at x ___bpm after a few minutes. Those of us who do this cannot really do this for minutes at a time; we exhaust then stop.
I often would engage in conversation, laugh, or drink water just to demonstrate to others that this is not contemplative, or bearing down on pelvis, contra stimulation of parasympathetic response, etc. In every single case I have convinced my peers, professors, cardiologists, and others that this was real. In every case they stood corrected, surprised, but did not understand.
So reserve some mystery for the unknown; these posters here are not unbalanced. We can tell, as a bona fides, others who have this versus others who are imagining it. It requires no thought, emotion, respiration, or other manipulation and it does not respond to time; its instantaneous. Oh, and when done, there will be an appreciable difference in armpit smell. This may be due to the secretion of porcine/like glands related to... fight or flight- sympathetic response!"

 

Anyways it seems interesting thing to study for someone working in the medical field, since there seem to be plenty of people who can do it and since it's so easily controlled running tests etc would not be complicated.

 

 

[IamBen]

So I also have signed up for an account just to agree with you. I looked everywhere to find someone else who might describe this phenomenon. You have done a pretty amazing job. Since my teenage years I have had, as you say, the 'ability' to decide at any point to relax the back of my thighs. This starts an intense feeling of tingling and 'over relaxation' that builds and becomes unbearable over time. It spreads from my thighs down my legs and up to my belly. It is intense and I cannot imagine any reason that it exists. It almost feels like it would do me damage if I kept it up for too long.

I'm not 100% sure but I think the feeling is very similar to one I had as a child that I have heard other people describe. Not many people but more people than have described the electric pleasure from over relaxing. This might not apply to everyone who experiences this but the first time I ever experienced such a feeling was when I was 8 or 9 at school and in PE class they made us climb ropes. For some reason clasping my legs against the rope and lifting myself up seemed very pleasurable. Almost sexual but not quite and way before any of that would have interested me.

Fascinating (to me) and unlikely to be investigated because so few people seem to experience it.

[Dirk Verbeeck]

The tingling sensation starts ca. 4 minutes after I put myself in 'sleeping mode' before taking a nap or falling asleep. It's still present when waking up. In my case is not triggered by 'mental effort' nor is it limited in time. It starts in the lower leggs and spreads to the feet, the upper legs (after ca. 10 minutes) sometimes followed by the hands and lower arms. Sensation is most intense in lower leggs and feet. As long as I don't move, the sensation is present. By mentally focussing on sections, it seems like you can feel mini bubbels in your vessel. Like sparkling water or electricity. The sensation itself is so 'overwhelmingly relaxing' that one feels no intention to disrupt it. Quite contrary. It seems to tell me: 'work in progress - the body is healing itself - give these vessel a break'. I guess there might be a link to the relaxation of the vessel/arteries and the release of nitric oxide in them. I've had the sensation ca. 5 months after I started eating whole food plant based and ever since. There is definitely a link between 'the sensation' and vessel/arteries/bloodflow. Bloodwork turns out to be normal - no extreme high or low numbers. (Different but additionally related, night long male symptoms in the lower regions have been occuring since the same period.) Still I have not found a medical study referring to this tingling sensation in the lower limbs. Seems to be a sign of good health to me.

[tim435@gmail.com]

I'm so happy to find this! I also created an account here to respond. I've been able to get this deep relaxed feeling for as long as I can remember but never really thought it was anything special until recently. I'm 39. But yeah, for me, it starts in the thighs and spreads out from there. It almost reminds me of that feeling you get going down that big initial drop on a roller coaster. Almost a tingly weightlessness. I'm super curious about what that is. Are we able to leave our bodies at will, because that's almost what it feels like. Lol. 

[Phi for All]

This sounds like imagination affecting physical systems. We can imagine a future situation that might make our hearts race, or allow a sense of dread to envelop us, or calm ourselves by imagining a relaxing environment with pleasing attributes. All from the imagination and the chemicals our brains can release based on it. Incredibly powerful system. 

[TheFishPilot]

thaar, I don't know if you're still active but I just experienced this last night and I had no idea what was happening but it felt good? Have you had any updates?

[DrP]

On ‎6‎/‎15‎/‎2018 at 1:44 PM, Scott of the Antares said:

Just like somebody posted a week or two ago; to be able to understand all that science offers you probably need 10 years of dedicated practice. If any of us practiced in these arts for 10 years, I am sure we could attest to the validity of these ‘sensations’.

It might take 10 years of practice to enhance your techniques and get the 'feelings' stronger...  but I'll challenge your claim that by practicing that you now 'understand all science has to offer' about the feelings.

No-one disputes what you are feeling... I would assume most scientists would sneer at the claims of these feelings being attributed to Chi or some mystical energy flowing through you though. It's is more likely to be you being aware of your senses more finely by focusing... although I'm, speculating there.  

 

[Alex_atrophy]

Hey everyone made an account to reply. I have been able to do this for as long as I can remember. When I was 9 I decided meditation was interesting and I began doing this both separately and also while meditating. Here are a few things I have observed I apologize for how medically inaccurate my assumptions are. I have always internally referred to it as "letting go" of my legs. It starts there and I can get it to spread to the rest of the body. Here are my observations. It starts with a release of control over the muscles in the hips and gluteus. Then (sry this awkward) a relaxation of the anus also more than likely the same level of release of the prostate. This triggers the release of the rest of legs muscles down to the toes. Then starting at the base of the middle of the spine and then spreading to the base of the neck. Then spreading to the rest of the muscles in back suchs between the shoulder blades. As silly as this may sound I oft find myself crossing my eyes at this point. Also important to mention is that I typically hold my breath at the start of this process and as I begin to release the muscles at the base of the spine up I begin breathing. The release of muscles in the hip anus and butt would probably be enough to increase blood flow as they are typically clenched. Pupil dilation could probable be explained by the increase in blood flow and more blood going through the heart. What is also kinda weird is sometimes sound gets really weird. An increase of low frequency perception and higher nyquist perception. I also tend to clench my teeth while starting but by the end I unclench my jaw and toungue. 

Edited January 15, 2019 by Alex_atrophy

[tim435@gmail.com]

All of that, the same with me. It's hard to describe, but you've done a good job of it. 

[Jujutaz]

Hey there, it is pretty reassuring to see that I’m not the only one feeling those weird tinglings/heat wave. Also, when the sensation goes into my upper body, I can feel and hear my stomach gurgles. I could compare the feeling to a « gut knot » becoming undone. Has anyone experienced the same thing? 

[Logan Landress]

Weird...Anus one is not really what happens to me. I also made an account to reply. I'm able to hold it for long periods of time if I concentrate a little. For me, it has a slight come down period where it doesn't go away at the start but slowly decreases. I'm able to shut it off If I concentrate tho. Sometimes it does happen without me thinking about it or concentrating. Like right now I felt it in my ring finger and it's been nonstop on my feet now growing up my legs now for 5 minutes at least. It gives me energy when I use it and I can control the intensness of it. Of course it feels better the longer I use it at one time. When I use it it's almost like...this..energy thing on the inside but not just that. It feels like there's also energy around my body I'm drawing from, idk if anyone else has that. Dont get me wrong I think all that meditation energy stuff is bullshit but that's just what it feels like. It is like an adrenaline rush but, different in a way. Also I dont have to be relaxed to do it, and it doesnt relax me it makes me more...alert and energetic.

Edited February 19, 2019 by Logan Landress

[StringJunky]

This is like the blurred vision thread.