I've never felt weird about paying strangers to touch me. Massages, facials, martial arts — it's all just bodywork to me. That is, until I booked my first professional back scratch with Julie Luther, ...

Now is a very tense time for a lot of people, but Phoebe Bridgers recently underwent 40 minutes of pure relaxation: She received an “ASMR massage” from YouTuber itsblitzzz (who also goes by Julia) in ...

I’m sitting on a futon in a stranger’s apartment with my friend Ashley. In front of us, Melinda Lauw—a slender, wide-eyed Singaporean woman—is crouched in a squat, holding a small flickering candle, ...

Imagine a massage that was spawned in a viral universe where whispering, chewing crackly snacks and tapping or slurping through straws reign supreme. ASMR, short for autonomous sensory meridian ...

We open with a close-up of a young woman’s face, shot from below. She gazes downward into the camera, her light brown hair hanging so low as to almost touch the lens. Her eyes are wide with what seems ...

Julie Luther, founder of Soft Touch ASMR Spa in Pasadena, gives the author an ASMR massage. I've never felt weird about paying strangers to touch me. Massages, facials, martial arts — it's all just ...