My weird, wonderful experience at Whisperlodge, a live ASMR hotel made to trigger "brain-gasms"

I’m in a cold dark room, lit only by the soft glow of a scarlet red light bulb. A “boudoir of pleasure that will awaken my senses”, I was told. 

It was one of Whisperlodge’s many mysterious rooms that have been carefully cultivated to trigger an autonomous sensory meridian response, a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine, and more commonly known, as ASMR.

Like most niche sub-cultures, this phenomenon found it’s place in a corner of the internet. They don’t exist in a vacuum either. You might have stumbled upon a video or two — the videos are extremely popular. The most common videos range from a person whispering into the microphone, to close-up of hands doing incredibly mundane tasks like pouring water or tapping on a jar.

Some innovative creators have even gone on to role-play relationship roles or expound intricate storylines on alien abductions to transfix viewers, all in hushed whispers of course.

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To the regular person, these videos might seem dull, boring even. But to the estimated 20% who experience ASMR, it is addictive and mesmerising.

While not much is known about this phenomenon due to lack of scientific research, studies have shown that the part of the brain that lights up during a tingle sesh was the reward centre where the feel-good hormone oxytocin is produced. That same part is where addiction occurs as well, which is why people can watch these videos for hours. Studies have also shown that individuals susceptible to ASMR also tend to have personality traits that score high on openness to experience.

“It’s a very primal experience,” shares Melinda Lauw, Singaporean artist, experience designer and co-creator of Whisperlodge. “It’s random, and there’s almost no logic to it. The actual physical sensation differs from person to person, and what triggers you also differs very much. For me when I experience the tingles, I feel fuzzy and sleepy, almost like I’m drunk.”

According to Lauw, one theory scientists have is that ASMR could be related to our internal memory of being in our mother’s womb where we hear sounds as a baby, and ASMR is able to trigger that remnant memory. Whisperlodge is designed to recreate that environment, and prime your body for relaxation.

“You might not like what we’re doing [at Whisperlodge], or even understand the stories or characters we have created, but your body will naturally react to the motion,” Lauw shared. “After you leave, your senses are heightened, and that is something you cannot deny.”

Can you experience ASMR in real life?

In all honesty, it was probably one of the strangest places I’ve ever had to conduct an interview in, but strange seemed to be the perfect way to describe the experience I was about to have. I was invited by SainouSpace, a collaborative art and music space, to preview their latest collaboration with Whisperlodge, an immersive and theatrical ASMR experience created by Lauw and NYC-based immersive creator Andrew Hoepfner (who interestingly, doesn’t experience ASMR).

A cult favourite of ASMR enthusiasts and experience seekers in New York and Los Angeles, Whisperlodge is the world’s first live ASMR experience and has performed for 16 sold-out runs across multiple cities in the United States. It was even featured on a Netflix docuseries, showcasing that there is much curiosity and demand for this strange phenomenon. The show had finally made its way to Singapore and I was one of the lucky few who would be able to experience it.

“When I started the show in 2016, I only had one hypothesis — can you experience ASMR in real life?” Lauw explains. “Through experimentation and feedback from audiences on how certain sounds from these live sessions triggered personal memories, we decided to develop the more theatrical aspects of the show.”

“Now it’s become this weird ass thing to do! There’s a novelty factor to it, and it’s going to be very out of the ordinary,” she shares with a chuckle. “You might not like it, but it’s so intimate and special that you’ll feel like you went on a trip — it’ll be fun, I promise!”

Welcome to the weird, world of Whisperlodge

While I have personally experienced ASMR and frissons, another involuntary physical response triggered when you are moved by music, these are not sensations that I actively seek. So I was curious to see how my body would respond if I voluntarily chose to put myself in an environment primed for this. 

Though if you don’t experience ASMR, it doesn’t mean the show isn’t for you.

“We no longer aim to simply trigger ASMR tingles," says Lauw. "Instead, our goal is to bring you into a state of calm awareness so that you can appreciate small sensations and details in your surroundings."

To fully immerse myself in the experience, I decided the less I knew the better. If there’s one thing I knew about art, sometimes it’s best to experience the work for what it is, devoid of any meaning or context so that you can draw your own interpretations.

To keep the show intimate, each slot will only be allotted to four guests. Guides will then individually take you through a series of rooms where you will be lavished with copious amounts of personal attention, gentle touches and a lush medley of sounds.

You do have to be prepared to be touched, Lauw warns, but it’s important to take note that at every point Whisperlodge’s guides will always seek your consent before any action. If you are uncomfortable, adjustments can be made, or you can signal to be escorted out. 

With the rules explained, four guides dressed in white soon appear before us, offering us plush, satin blindfolds to be guided to an unknown space.

They whisper words that don’t make sense into my ear, telling me to go “Inside, inside, inside…”. I’m guided to a cool, dark room and offered an unknown tea to drink. More strange sounds echo all around me. Have I just joined a cult? Am I in the Matrix? What the hell am I drinking?

I won't lie — I was nervous, especially after hearing how an earlier participant had left the show in tears. Logically, my brain knew I wasn’t in any danger. But I could feel my heart pulsating at the thought of the unknown, giving the opposite response to the relaxation that I was promised.

Part cult-like experience, part guided meditation, part sensory deprivation

As we were told to remove our blindfolds, a performance unveiled before us. A woman in white kneels with her back facing towards us as she slowly peels off her shirt. Two Whisperlodge guides join her as they gently stroke her back with soft, fluffy brushes. I stare with curiosity, waiting for something to happen, but also mildly intrigued by what the sensations might feel like. My questions would soon be answered.

After the communal display, we were then separated into different rooms. I was brought into the aforementioned boudoir. A familiar face greets me, one I recognised as Lauw. She whispers to me a story about a personal artefact, and places one on me in the hopes to create a familiar bond in the next 20 or so minutes. I was then invited to lie down on the couch as she starts to stroke my face with a makeup brush.

As someone who is not a big fan of physical touch, I had expected to feel some aversion to this room. I was already feeling the fuzzies as soon as the show began, but somehow, combined with the soft sofa, the feathery touches of the brush and the constant and soothing reassurances to trust the process, I could feel my body really starting to relax and inciting a warm sensation at the back of my head.

Sure, it was a great feeling, but still, it made me wonder, if only 20 per cent of the population felt this, what was the incentive for the other 80 per cent?

“Even if you don’t experience ASMR, it’s very similar to how people like listening to the sound of rain,” Lauw explains to me after the show. “They just need a soft, droning sound in the background to help them relax. [With ASMR] there is also a sense of personal attention that is very translatable to your own relaxation. When I focus on something small with you, you will automatically be drawn in by my focus and forget about everything else.”

“So, a bit like guided meditation?” I asked.

“It’s like guided meditation, it’s like sensory deprivation, but we just don’t call it that. Then at the end you realise, oh yeah, it does feel similar to that!”

Get reaallllly prepared to get upclose and personal with a stranger

I soon hear a gong, gently reminding us that it was time to move on. Feeling sleepy, I reluctantly moved on to the kitchen. Fashioned like an old-school kitchen in the ‘90s, while asethetically this was the room that looked the most familiar to me, it was also the one I immediately felt discomfort.

Firstly, gone were the comfy couches I sunk in the previous rooms and in place was a hard wooden stool that would fit right at home in my grandmother’s house. The room was filled with memories and intimate family photos of my current guide Derrick, making me feel like I was intruding on someone’s personal space.

Derrick soon launches into a personal anecdote about his mother, as he carefully details the first hairstyle she had taught him how to do. He then asked for permission to brush my hair. While slightly uncomfortable with the intimacy of the act, I obliged, wanting to really embrace every single detail of the show. As he used the brush to gently apply pressure to my scalp, the room soon flipped from being my least favourite, to my most. A rush of tingles, the most I have ever felt that afternoon concentrated at the back of my head. 

Can ASMR be triggered by memory as well? Because even reiterating this experience now has triggered some very faint feelings of fuzziness in my head. Fueled by this positive physical sensation, it was at this point where I felt like I truly gave in to the experience.

Derrick soon progressed from hair brushing to a full-on shoulder and upper back massage. If I wasn’t relaxed then, I was definitely relaxed now.

(Derrick, if you’re reading this, if the ASMR acting career doesn’t pan out, massage therapy should definitely be next on your list.)

As he really relaxed the knots in my tense shoulders, I felt my body slump down, feeling as if I was on holiday being catered to by an elderly Thai lady.

After the one-on-one time, we were brought together for one last communal session – a live ASMR showcase as a group. We were handed earphones connected to a microphone with two silicon ears, mimicking the ASMR experiences I had seen on popular YouTube videos. The final guide arose, initially hidden under a pile of fabric and began to detail herself getting ready for a regular day. 

Though still a pleasant experience, it did feel like a departure, especially after being attended to personally in all those one-on-one sessions. As the show ended, we were instructed to put our blindfolds back on and were escorted out of Whisperlodge. A final flutter of random phrases were whispered into my ear and I start to hear the familiar sounds of the outside world (in my case, construction noises and angry Hokkien) drowning them.  

As I remove my blindfold, I find myself on the first level of the building, alongside three other confused participants, our guides nowhere to be found.

At Whisperlodge, you check-in just to check out

As someone who is exposed (and is probably addicted) to so much stimuli on a daily basis, consuming ASMR videos has never been my thing. I’m the annoying person who’s on Instagram as she’s watching a movie, reading TV recaps as I binged shows on my laptop, and actively listen to music 24/7. You might as well hook up a dopamine drip to my wrists and call it a day. I don’t see these videos pulling my focus unless it’s synced to a bangin’ soundtrack. 

But at Whisperlodge, the forced intimacy, surrounding quiet and intention of each individual sound forces me to draw my focus to every action. I HAVE to participate and follow along because I’ve already chosen to be here and consent to everything that happens.

And I don’t know if this is intentional, but the slight cult-like vibes of the space does also put you in a more susceptible position to go along for the ride. (The mysterious tea if you’re nervous about, is just lavender and elderflower).

Ironically, even though the environment is primed to make you relaxed, the fear of the relative unknown is also an internal response that you actively have to quell. Maybe it was the soothing whispers, or the copious amounts of therapy I’ve attended over the year (shoutout to my therapist), but I found myself repeating reminders to just let go and experience it for what is is. After all, it’s only 90 minutes in a safe, controlled environment.

At Whisperlodge, you check-in just to check out — and that’s exactly what I did. Will this make me an ASMR convert after? Probably not, but perhaps the next time anxiety rises and I can’t get to a boxing gym nearby, calm might just be a few YouTube clicks away.

As a final question to Lauw, I asked her what can people expect out of the show. She pauses, before saying “Expect to be touched. Expect to be intimate with a stranger in a very short amount of time.” 

Whisperlodge is happening on September 17 and 24 and October 1 and 9. There are four sessions each day at 2.30pm, 4.30pm, 7.30pm and 9.30pm. Each session is limited to four participants per slot. Tickets are $158 per pax and are available for bookings now at SainouSpace.