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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To ask if you’re one of the 1 in 1499 people that can do this?

160 replies

SoniaFouler · 26/10/2021 00:48

It’s called Voluntarily Generated Piloerection (VGP)—the ability to consciously give one’s self goosebumps. I’ve never met anybody else in real life that can do this so thought surely there must be at least one other person on here who can! If you can, how do you trigger yours? Mine is a form of what I can only describe as electric energy at the back of my head which I force down the entire length of my spine, I do it about two or three times rapidly one after the other and the skin on my arms, legs and chest immediately flare up with really strong visible goosebumps Confused - almost like a plucked chicken Blush The example given in the article says the guy moves his head from side to side to trigger it but i do it completely still, just concentrating on making my muscles send the sensation down my back.

Please join me, fellow freaks of nature:

A mammal’s hair follicle clings to the skin via a tiny muscle. When this muscle contracts, the hair will stand, the skin around it will undergo bump-shaped distortion, and voila—goosebumps.

For the 1499 people in this statistical metaphor, goosebumps are completely involuntary. The tiny muscle, called the arrector pili, is made of smooth muscle fibers. And like other smooth muscles of the body—those that handle digestion, blood flow, respiration, and so on—they are unconsciously regulated. The nerves attached to them lie in the autonomic nervous system, the part of the nervous system dedicated to managing bodily functions you aren’t supposed to control consciously, like heart rate or pupil dilation.

www.mentalfloss.com/article/622399/people-can-control-their-goosebumps

OP posts:
catandbabymama · 26/10/2021 00:50

I can do this! And do it the same as you from what you've described
How strange!

SoniaFouler · 26/10/2021 00:55

@catandbabymama I honestly thought everybody could do this and it was completely normal until I said “oh I love that feeling when you force yourself to have goosebumps” and they looked at me like Hmm not having a clue what I was on about and then looked at me like Shock when I showed them. Then I read it and apparently it’s rare! But not for us Grin

OP posts:
Pottytraining37473 · 26/10/2021 00:58

I can do this! However is it really as rare as they say. Because I can do it and never figured that I am that special! Grin

SoniaFouler · 26/10/2021 01:05

Neither am I Potty so this made me feel rather unique! I am going to be quite disgruntled if this turns out to be a “oh yeah, I can do that, everybody can” thread AngryGrin

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Iveputmyselfonthenaughtystep · 26/10/2021 01:06

I can do it. Similar sort of method to you, though not totally.
I believed it was a form of ...what's that thing where you find listening to people eat soothing? Lots of weird YouTube videos on it. I could probably Google the word, but I'm binge watching silent witness and mumsnetting so I cba.

Iveputmyselfonthenaughtystep · 26/10/2021 01:09

Dammit. Had to go Google because it was annoying me. Asmr is the thing.
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASMR

Pieceofpurplesky · 26/10/2021 01:11

I can! I kind of internally shake my head if that makes sense.

I can also remember smells

SoniaFouler · 26/10/2021 01:13

Is it a form of that? I hate ASMR! When it was the new thing I tried to listen to some and they just sent shivers down my spine (Ok, maybe it is connected actually having typed that out and it fitting in with what I typed in my OP). But I don’t like it or find it soothing at all!

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FliesAreMad · 26/10/2021 01:18

I can do it 🤷‍♀️

SoniaFouler · 26/10/2021 01:18

@Pieceofpurplesky

I can! I kind of internally shake my head if that makes sense.

I can also remember smells

That’s how it’s described how the guy in the article does his!
OP posts:
scarpa · 26/10/2021 01:23

I can! For me it's like... a swallowing feeling in my chest but without actually swallowing. It doesn't give mega strong goosebumps but I get them all over my arms and chest!

AleynEivlys · 26/10/2021 01:26

I can too, but all I have to do is think about/imagine getting goosebumps and then they happen ...? 🤷

Ariela · 26/10/2021 01:40

I can do it, it's like a feeling of pouring them down from the neck.

I can also match a colour from memory. I didn't realise this was unusual, I thought everybody could do it. I've an excellent local fabric shop, and I'd pop the 2 or 3 rolls on the counter to be measured out, then wander down the shop, collect the correct rolls of thread to match, and plonk them on the counter. The shop owner pointed it out, that I always could pick the correct colour to match without holding the fabric next to it - I had no idea. Checked with a friend who is a professional dress maker as I thought surely she'd be able to do it too, but she can't! I've done it several times with wall paint, or cushions, or buying a matching hat/cardigan/top etc without taking in the thing I'm trying to match.

IHateCoronavirus · 26/10/2021 01:54

I can do it, it feels like you say, a sort of pushing electrical energy down from the base of my head through my spine.

Unfortunately, I also get a sort of electrical shock in the same area from certain low frequency sounds if they are emitted behind me (slightly to the right). Worse still my 16 year old son’s voice is the perfect trigger. Poor child comes to speak to me and I’m yelping like a puppy!

PomBearWithoutHerOFRS · 26/10/2021 02:07

I can. I have to imagine my middle finger nails bending back. You know when they get that bit too long, and you get hold of a thick towel or something, and it just bends the nail and it's urgh!
If I think about that, I get goosebumps.

LemonSwan · 26/10/2021 02:09

Wow this is interesting.

I have tried to do it by shaking my shoulders as if to mimic a shiver and also to try to think of something creepy.

I am kind of feeling like it should be the beginning of a goosebump with the shiver shoulder move but I just cant do it - the hairs start to stand (or maybe I am willingly imagining it!) but the bumps are not to be seen.

User983590521 · 26/10/2021 02:15

Wow, never heard of this.
Can't everyone remember smells?

GoIntoTheLight · 26/10/2021 02:30

Are you sure it's one in 1499? Because the majority of this thread claim to be able to do it! Unless there are 15,000 people who read the thread, can't do it and didn't reply.

(I can't do it)

JulesRimetStillGleaming · 26/10/2021 02:32

I can't do it either but I'm currently internally shaking my head just in case I can but never realised.

So far it's a nope.

JustJoinedRightNow · 26/10/2021 02:54

I can do it but weirdly it comes from the bottom up. This sounds so weird but if I clench my pelvic floor and I can do it. Is that the same thing?

Aberteifi · 26/10/2021 03:04

I can also do this it starts with me sort of shaking in my head like vibrating in the back of my head.
I thought it was just me, i tried to get my children to do it before but they can't do it and think im just weird Grin

Angrymum22 · 26/10/2021 14:20

I can do the colour thing but I have a visual memory. Rubbish at people’s names but great for when I am asked that famous question “have you seen my…..”.

LemonPeonies · 26/10/2021 14:29

I can but it's not usually on purpose 😅

LemonPeonies · 26/10/2021 14:31

Actually I take that back, I used to do it deliberately as a child by imagining biting a dry towel. I hate the feeling of rough towels 😬

SoniaFouler · 26/10/2021 14:32

@JustJoinedRightNow

I can do it but weirdly it comes from the bottom up. This sounds so weird but if I clench my pelvic floor and I can do it. Is that the same thing?
I’ve just tried it in reverse and did it so it probably is the same thing if your body immediately breaks out in goosebumps!
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