Is there any hard psychological or neurological research being done on ASMR?
Not to detract on people's experiences (I believe you!), but right now it looks as though there are a lot of different manifestations of the experience which are being grouped into one "ASMR" category, ranging from "it calms me" to "It feels nice" to "I get a tingling sensation" to "I am sexually aroused". I think this is why there is a lot of defensiveness about it being branded a fetish.
Not to detract on people's experiences (I believe you!), but right now it looks as though there are a lot of different manifestations of the experience which are being grouped into one "ASMR" category, ranging from "it calms me" to "It feels nice" to "I get a tingling sensation" to "I am sexually aroused". I think this is why there is a lot of defensiveness about it being branded a fetish.