# Sleep and Dreams > Sleep and Health >  >  Does Everyone Do this?

## Anomalous

Forgive me if this topic is better suited to the beyond dreaming section, I was unsure where to post it as it kind of bridges two topics.

For my whole life I've been able to create a wind rushing sensation inside my head. It's tough to describe and I've never met anybody who could relate to how I was able to articulate it. In my younger years I assumed everyone did it, for all I know everyone does do it. I have no idea.

To trigger it I almost have to flex a muscle of which I'm not even aware. Flexing my brain is the best way I can describe it. I can do it in pulses or hold it for up to about a minute, after that a sensation of fatigue stops me. 

I've used it to relax because it produces a calming sensation almost like third eye meditation does. I experience the same internal noises during out of body experiences which I've had several of. I have a recurring inner ear twitch that pops my ear drum repeatedly and during these out of body experiences it becomes tremendously active, sometimes in both ears and sometimes just in one.

I'm not worried in any health related way I'm just wondering if anybody here can relate to what I'm saying!

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## Arra

A few things about this I can relate to.

The best way to describe my experience is to just explain it, I think, instead of directly trying to relate it to yours. Since I was about 9, I've been able to sort of tense, ('flex' is also how I've tried to describe it) a series of what seem like muscles in my body. In what feels like my brain, and in what feels like my lungs, flexing both simultaneously. I used to do it by habit when I got angry. In grade 7, I did this at school in front of the bathroom mirror, watching my face turn red. There was a feeling of pressure building up in me. The next thing I knew, I woke up on the bathroom floor. It seemed I had been dreaming about something. I was disoriented and had no idea where I was at first. I got up, dizzy, having to hold on to the sinks to balance. I did this a couple times afterward, but shouldn't have. I was probably somehow cutting off oxygen to my brain, or creating pressure in my brain, causing it to shut itself down. I'm afraid that I was risking death or some serious problem occurring in my brain.

While reading your post, I tried doing it again for only a few seconds, not until I fainted, but just to see if I could hear the same wind rushing sound. I could hear something which might be described as wind rushing. I felt dizzy though, and like I was going to faint. I think it only takes about 10 seconds of doing this for me to faint, and don't usually let myself do it at all anymore.

Years ago, my mom took me to the doctor because she was concerned about me fainting. The doctor didn't seem to understand what I was doing, and thought I was just holding my breath until I passed out. Recently, I brought it up to my mom, and she gave me some term for it as though she had figured it out since then, but I've never looked it up. Maybe I'll ask her tomorrow. What you're doing might be dangerous, if it's the same thing as I was doing, but maybe whatever specific thing you do is safe.

Until now, I've never heard of anyone else being able to do anything like this. I've tried writing about it on a forum before, but got no responses. I've googled possible ways to faint, and kept reading that the only way to self-induce fainting is by holding your breath, which I know isn't true.

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## aktw4

Yes, I can do this easily. I'm not sure you are flexing your brain, just muscles around your head.






> A few things about this I can relate to.
> 
> The best way to describe my experience is to just explain it, I think, instead of directly trying to relate it to yours. Since I was about 9, I've been able to sort of tense, ('flex' is also how I've tried to describe it) a series of what seem like muscles in my body. In what feels like my brain, and in what feels like my lungs, flexing both simultaneously. I used to do it by habit when I got angry. In grade 7, I did this at school in front of the bathroom mirror, watching my face turn red. There was a feeling of pressure building up in me. The next thing I knew, I woke up on the bathroom floor. It seemed I had been dreaming about something. I was disoriented and had no idea where I was at first. I got up, dizzy, having to hold on to the sinks to balance. I did this a couple times afterward, but shouldn't have. I was probably somehow cutting off oxygen to my brain, or creating pressure in my brain, causing it to shut itself down. I'm afraid that I was risking death or some serious problem occurring in my brain.
> 
> While reading your post, I tried doing it again for only a few seconds, not until I fainted, but just to see if I could hear the same wind rushing sound. I could hear something which might be described as wind rushing. I felt dizzy though, and like I was going to faint. I think it only takes about 10 seconds of doing this for me to faint, and don't usually let myself do it at all anymore.
> 
> Years ago, my mom took me to the doctor because she was concerned about me fainting. The doctor didn't seem to understand what I was doing, and thought I was just holding my breath until I passed out. Recently, I brought it up to my mom, and she gave me some term for it as though she had figured it out since then, but I've never looked it up. Maybe I'll ask her tomorrow. What you're doing might be dangerous, if it's the same thing as I was doing, but maybe whatever specific thing you do is safe.
> 
> Until now, I've never heard of anyone else being able to do anything like this. I've tried writing about it on a forum before, but got no responses. I've googled possible ways to faint, and kept reading that the only way to self-induce fainting is by holding your breath, which I know isn't true.



You were holding your breath.

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## Arra

> You were holding your breath.



It's true that doing what I did involved holding my breath, but it obviously was more than that, not caused merely by holding my breath. It's obvious that it was more because, while I can hold my breath for over a minute and a half while feeling only mildly lightheaded, it only takes about 4 seconds of doing what I describe to feel extremely dizzy, and only about 10 seconds to faint.

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## Xijek

I can do something somewhat similar, I suppose. Mine started in class. I flex, or tense, muscles somewhere in my head, and I get the wind rushing through my ears it almost feels like. Somewhat related, when I get a certain stretch going, I stop hearing all sound for about 5 seconds and when I un-tense, everything seems a bit surreal.

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## aktw4

> It's true that doing what I did involved holding my breath, but it obviously was more than that, not caused merely by holding my breath. It's obvious that it was more because, while I can hold my breath for over a minute and a half while feeling only mildly lightheaded, it only takes about 4 seconds of doing what I describe to feel extremely dizzy, and only about 10 seconds to faint.



If you run and hold your breath you will get the same effect.





> I can do something somewhat similar, I suppose. Mine started in class. I flex, or tense, muscles somewhere in my head, and I get the wind rushing through my ears it almost feels like. Somewhat related, when I get a certain stretch going, I stop hearing all sound for about 5 seconds and when I un-tense, everything seems a bit surreal.



You can't stop *all* hearing, you must admit you can hear faint sounds?

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## Arra

Are we behaviorists now? Just because two things result in fainting, doesn't mean they're the same thing. If I'm to believe that what I did had the same effect _internally_ as someone who holds their breath while running, then I'll have be given a biological explanation. Because to me, they seem very different.

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## Xijek

Yeah, a bit like the peanuts. More of a woh-woh-woh sound.

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## aktw4

> Are we behaviorists now? Just because two things result in fainting, doesn't mean they're the same thing. If I'm to believe that what I did had the same effect _internally_ as someone who holds their breath while running, then I'll have be given a biological explanation. Because to me, they seem very different.



You were simply tensing your muscles and holding your breath yeah? I don't see the mystery in this.

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## Anomalous

Good to know people have had similar experiences.

Dianeva I think I know what you're describing and I think I've experienced that before also. I used to do that after watching X-Men to see if I could move things with my mind.
Never could  :smiley:  I never passed out though but I remember feeling lightheaded afterwards so I might have been headed in that direction.

To me that's more leaning towards a whole body sensation. What I'm talking about doesn't have anything to do with heightened emotions or assistance from a bunch of other muscles it's more of a frivilous thing such as raising one eye brow in the mirror for kicks. The explanation of it having to do with tensing the muscles in one's head makes sense to me and I had never really entertained that idea before, perhaps muscles around the ear canal. 

Xijek, what you describe sounds pretty close to what I mean, it does muffle one's hearing. For me I can virtually do it to the point of being unable to hear anything at all.

I've never spoken to a doctor about it and I rarely get anywhere with online searches because describing it in universal terms proves difficult.

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## Aldar13

"It's the contraction of the tensor tympani.

A small percentage of the population can actually voluntarily contract this muscle, inducing a noticeable and (until explained) odd 'rumbling' sound to occur."

I've go this from yahoo answers.

"The tensor tympani, the larger of the two muscles of the tympanic cavity, is contained in the bony canal above the osseous portion of the auditory tube. Its role is to dampen sounds, such as those produced from chewing."

This from wikipedia

BTW, I can do this too  ::D: 

We should start a club or something..  ::D:

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## Oneironaut Zero

Yeah, I can do this too. I usually do this when I want to drown out some noise. For some reason, it's also a defense mechanism, when I go into a situation (or movie) when something might jump out at me, unexpectedly. I don't know why I do that, but it sort of helps "detach" me from the situation, because it's like I'm muffling the audio or something. I don't know. It's weird.  ::chuckle::

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## Robot_Butler

I do this, too. For me, it feels similar to the sound you get from a really good yawn.  Without the actual yawn, of course.    I've never thought twice about it.  I used to do it more when I was younger.

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## LSDreamer

Dont want to start a new topic on this, and it is kind of off topic. But does everyone hear a very very high pitched ringing if they listen?  I by no means feel special, but theres always this high pitched ringing going on, if i listen for it.  Almost like the sound of electricity running or something.  I know the other afternoon, when laying down, I was telling myself, I can hear energy. And It was getting louder and louder, forget why I stopped listening to it probably got distracted.   Might have been a reason with my meditation or something, still very new to this all and learning as I go but.   This was during a mid afternoon WILD-attempt, which was unsuccessful but a learning experience non the less.

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## Arra

> Dont want to start a new topic on this, and it is kind of off topic. But does everyone hear a very very high pitched ringing if they listen?  I by no means feel special, but theres always this high pitched ringing going on, if i listen for it.  Almost like the sound of electricity running or something.  I know the other afternoon, when laying down, I was telling myself, I can hear energy. And It was getting louder and louder, forget why I stopped listening to it probably got distracted.   Might have been a reason with my meditation or something, still very new to this all and learning as I go but.   This was during a mid afternoon WILD-attempt, which was unsuccessful but a learning experience non the less.



I get that too. My biology professor a few years ago mentioned that everyone's ears (somewhere in the inner ear I think) produce a high pitched ringing noise, and that in, I think it was 1/3 (or maybe 1/6) of people, the ringing is loud enough to hear when everything else is quiet, even by another person (presumably you're making out or something and the other person hears it?). But I always assumed it was just background noise that your brain produces when everything is silent, becuase it isn't used to the sensation of actual silence. So I don't know, but I've given you my input and some vaguely rememebred words of a phd biology professor.

As for the wind-rushing thing, I guess I can't do it. With things like this, bodily movements that some people can do and others can't, I always wonder if it's that others physically aren't able to do it, or just don't know how to do it. I've been clentching every muscle I can think of in my head to try to produce it, and keep coming across new muscles I hadn't realized were there or have forgotten. I can move my thumb back and make a cracking noise easily each time, and can bend the top joints of my fingers without beinding the other joints, and most others claim to be unable to do that but I've wondered if they just don't know how. Same with my ability to clentch muscles to make myself faint.

One thing I've realized while trying to do the head thing is, when I clentch my lower jow in a way to make it go backward, I experience a high pitched noise. Anyway, I think this is giving me a headache so I'll stop trying. I think I'm just unable to do it. But after hearing it's rare I'm wishing I could.

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## aktw4

That "ringing" sound you hear is Tinnitus. I almost can't believe you didn't know that.

*Edit:* I thought this was common knowledge.

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## Oneironaut Zero

> That "ringing" sound you hear is Tinnitus. I almost can't believe you didn't know that.
> 
> *Edit:* I thought this was common knowledge.



Common knowledge also includes not being surprised at what the next person doesn't know.

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## DeletePlease

I'm not sure if it's the same thing you're talking about but when I close my eyes and flex to make my ears move up a bit, I hear/feel something similar to a breeze.

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## aktw4

> Common knowledge also includes not being surprised at what the next person doesn't know.



Not really. Also I wasn't trying to be rude if that's what you were thinking. I just thought it was a common as "we breathe because we need oxygen".

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## Oneironaut Zero

> Not really.



Proof that the term "common" is subjective.  ::wink:: 





> Also I wasn't trying to be rude if that's what you were thinking. I just thought it was a common as "we breathe because we need oxygen".



Ok.  ::cheers::

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## aktw4

> Proof that the term "common" is subjective.



I suppose.

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## Jakemnam

yeah yeah yeah I can do this too! But I've never fainted from it.

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## Telemachus

I can produce exactly the effect Gavin described, not sure if that's what everyone else is talking about. I find it's much easier to do when my eyes are closed, but I can trigger it at almost any time.

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## EmilySian

I thought everyone could do this! It's never something i've really thought concsiously about but i've always been able to do it. I tend to use it to drown out noise if I dont want to hear something or in movies when im anticipating a scary part coming up. Now that i've read this i've been trying to see how long I can hold it. Not lasting beyond about 20 seconds at the moment. But I can do it instantly.

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## EmilySian

And yes its much easier when closing your eyes.

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## Arra

> I can produce exactly the effect Gavin described, not sure if that's what everyone else is talking about. I find it's much easier to do when my eyes are closed, but I can trigger it at almost any time.



I tried closing my eyes when I read this, and when I closed them tightly I could feel a definite wind-rushing sensation. But it lasts for about a second and I can't do it when not closing my eyes.

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## nina

You guys are hilarious. Sometimes it still surprises me how little people know about their own bodies. There should be a preschool class or something that is designed to help children explore their various muscles and psychophysiological sensations. I've only gotten to know mine much better within the last several years, and it is really fascinating...but it's also funny to see people getting excited about stuff like this. I do it too.  ::chuckle::  Especially when I can sense specific brainwave frequencies or can follow a single nerve impulse through a specific neural network. It's all about quieting the conscious mind and listening to the body.

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## KaiLiquid

I can do this easily. I thought everyone can do it ?

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## MindGames

I get this sound in my head when I yawn. Seems like a pretty common phenomenon to me.

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## L33tsaber

I can't remember what I was trying to do (probably a lame attempt at ear-wiggling) that first made me aware of the effect, but I've been doing that ever since I was little.  I thought it was something weird that only happened to me, since I had made a couple attempts to explain it, and nobody ever understood what I was talking about.

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## dreamskies

I can definetly do the wind rushing thing.
I do it by flexing a mucell inside the ear. It helps to close the eyes and and yawn. with your mouth open try and stretch the sides apart by moving your jaw.

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## Arra

> A small percentage of the population can actually voluntarily contract this muscle"



The large number of replies claiming they can do it too have made me question whether the ability is so rare.

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## L33tsaber

> The large number of replies claiming they can do it too have made me question whether the ability is so rare.



Unless there's just some weird correlation between people who are interested in lucid dreaming and people who can do the windy-ear-thing.

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## MindGames

Or most of the people who are interested in talking about the phenomenon are the ones who have actually experienced it.

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## Blacklight

> For me, it feels similar to the sound you get from a really good yawn.



And then it all made sense. It's that rumbling feel when you move your ears up a bit isn't it? It doesn't really help me suppress sounds though, as some described.

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## zebrah

Dianeva if you really want to show that just tensing the muscles can make you faint do it while breathing. Holding your breath will cause you to faint no matter what you are doing. 

And after reading what robot said about it being like a good yawn I realized I have experienced this while yawning. My best guess as to what this is.... I think it's just your jaw muscles flexing distorting your hearing making it seem like wind is rushin in your head.

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## martango

I can do this, though it's easier to make it happen if I scrunch my face up or yawn..  ::D:

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## Blacklight

> I think it's just your jaw muscles flexing distorting your hearing making it seem like wind is rushin in your head.



Obviously not if you can do it without clenching your jaw.

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## MindGames

Yeah, it's not your jaw muscles. It's another muscle group.

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## GDSL43

I'm getting confused, because i can make two different things with that muscle. The first i use it when i have clogged ears and it feels like air going through my ears, and the other souns like a bzzzz and also happens when i yawn extremely  ::lol::  And if i mix both i can clogg/unclogg my ears whenever i want.

PS: Never fainted by doing this  ::roll::

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## StingPT

I can do this too. I can do that with my eyes open and without yawning for a minute, but it gives me headaches if I do this for more than 10 seconds. Its nice to do this while imagining the sea, it gives a good sensation... Never fainted by doing that.

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## Arra

> Dianeva if you really want to show that just tensing the muscles can make you faint do it while breathing. Holding your breath will cause you to faint no matter what you are doing.



It's impossible to do it while breathing, I think because it involves my lungs. It seems like a combination of muscles from my head and lungs. I'm not saying that just tensing any muscles will make me faint. I'm saying whatever I'm specifically doing will make me faint. I might be cutting off blood off from my brain, or pushing it into my brain. It feels like the latter, because I get a feeling like my brain is swelling. I suspect it's something like this, but don't know.

I don't know why everyone who's responded to my claim continues to insist that I simply am holding my breath, and that it's nothing more than that. I've refuted that already, and my refutation seems to be ignored. *I can hold my breath for over a minute while feeling only a bit light headed, but I only have to do this muscle contraction thing for about 6 seconds to faint, feeling very light headed after only about 3 seconds. When's the last time you saw someone faint from merely holding their breath for 6 seconds? Millions of people would have died from holding their breath underwater while swimming if that were the case.* If someone is hypothesizing that it involves holding my breath, that's fine. But if that's true, it obviously involves something extra as well which has to do with the feeling of contracting my muscles, for the reason I've described in bold and won't explain again.

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## dreamskies

i can do the wind thing for sure, But It doesn't make me feel light headed. it is easier to do while holding my breath but I can do it while breathing in. I don't think I can hold it for more than about 3 seconds though. It just sort of fades away.

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## Dreamdreamdream17

I can do it too, it seems to be controlled from the ears and I hear a wooshing noise, like as said, a powerful wind. I used to do it in boring assemblies when I was younger, like first school, but then got scared that other people could hear it cos it seemed so loud to me... I can also wobble my eyes really fast from side to side, just thought I'd mention this as we all seem to be mentioning stuff we can do with our bodies...  ::D:

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## MindGames

> I can also wobble my eyes really fast from side to side, just thought I'd mention this as we all seem to be mentioning stuff we can do with our bodies...



Lol I can do that too. I used to have eye-wobbling contests with my friend back in elementary school and we'd see who ran out of 'gas' first.  :Cheeky:

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## DeletePlease

> Especially when I can sense specific brainwave frequencies or can follow a single nerve impulse through a specific neural network. It's all about quieting the conscious mind and listening to the body.



Mind elaborating? Sounds cool.  .-.





> I can produce exactly the effect Gavin described, not sure if that's what everyone else is talking about. I find it's much easier to do when my eyes are closed, but I can trigger it at almost any time.



I was scouring my recent posts via profile and getting increasingly annoyed because I couldn't figure out where that "thanks" came from. Glad I finally did.  :tongue2: 





> It's impossible to do it while breathing, I think because it involves my lungs. It seems like a combination of muscles from my head and lungs. I'm not saying that just tensing any muscles will make me faint. I'm saying whatever I'm specifically doing will make me faint. I might be cutting off blood off from my brain, or pushing it into my brain. It feels like the latter, because I get a feeling like my brain is swelling. I suspect it's something like this, but don't know.
> 
> I don't know why everyone who's responded to my claim continues to insist that I simply am holding my breath, and that it's nothing more than that. I've refuted that already, and my refutation seems to be ignored. *I can hold my breath for over a minute while feeling only a bit light headed, but I only have to do this muscle contraction thing for about 6 seconds to faint, feeling very light headed after only about 3 seconds. When's the last time you saw someone faint from merely holding their breath for 6 seconds? Millions of people would have died from holding their breath underwater while swimming if that were the case.* If someone is hypothesizing that it involves holding my breath, that's fine. But if that's true, it obviously involves something extra as well which has to do with the feeling of contracting my muscles, for the reason I've described in bold and won't explain again.



Try not to hold you breath for so long, that way you wont faint. What? I'm not funny, you say? Guess you're right. :[ 

I can't do it while breathing either. Btw, has anyone noticed you can kinda play with the pitch (not sure if that's the right word) and create weird ear-music? =P

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## nina

Ha. Take some mdma...then we'll talk about really crazy and uncontrollable eye wobbles. It's crazy the sort of things you can do with your body on certain substances. For example, I can tell my brain not to combine the two images from each eyeball into one, so that I'm seeing two separate slightly different images. I can even get my eyeballs to look in opposite directions. Just barely though...so that there is about a 2-3 inch space between the two separate images. 

To illustrate what I'm talking about...

Normal


Split screen


Looking in opposite directions (basically the complete opposite of crossing your eyes)


I try not to do it often though, because I get the feeling it's probably not very good for the eyes? It's fun to play around with stuff like this though. Natural curiosity is a good thing, but you know what they say.

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## MindGames

> Ha. Take some mdma...then we'll talk about really crazy and uncontrollable eye wobbles.



I took a triple stack of MDMA at a rave once. I didn't notice any eye wobbles, but I did have the horrible urge of making out with other guys.

Needless to say I've been drug free ever since.

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## Armistice

> You were holding your breath.



That's part of it, but there's more to this

There was a guy I knew in band that can do what the OP was describing.  It's a building pressure feeling, plus causing your face to turn red.  I can do that as well, but have never done it to the point of fainting





> You can't stop *all* hearing, you must admit you can hear faint sounds?



Sometimes my hearing will block out all sounds except a ringing.  Not tinnitus, it's just something that come up for no reason, and lasts for about 2-3secs.

How much ear ringing constitutes tinnitus?  My ears always seem to have a faint ringing 





> I'm not sure if it's the same thing you're talking about but when I close my eyes and flex to make my ears move up a bit, I hear/feel something similar to a breeze.



Ear wiggling/ tensing doesn't do it for me 





> I get this sound in my head when I yawn. Seems like a pretty common phenomenon to me.



OHH, now I know what y'all are talking about!  When I yawn, I usually breath in and out and get the rushing sound 





> Obviously not if you can do it without clenching your jaw.



I can tense up my jaw muscles without clenching





> Ha. Take some mdma...then we'll talk about really crazy and uncontrollable eye wobbles. It's crazy the sort of things you can do with your body on certain substances. For example, I can tell my brain not to combine the two images from each eyeball into one, so that I'm seeing two separate slightly different images. I can even get my eyeballs to look in opposite directions. Just barely though...so that there is about a 2-3 inch space between the two separate images. 
> Normal
> Split screen
> Looking in opposite directions (basically the complete opposite of crossing your eyes)



I can kind of do it by refocusing my eyes

Ok, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but when I yawn, it causes my ears- what I've always described- to pop.  I can also tense the muscle to pop my ears when I'm in the mountains and changing in elevation (releaving the pressure on my eardrums) and can also do the same underwater.  It must have something to do with the air pressure in the ear canal as I seem to be equalizing the pressure in my aforementioned examples.  I can do this, then breathe in or out, and create that rushing sound

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## Dreamdreamdream17

> Lol I can do that too. I used to have eye-wobbling contests with my friend back in elementary school and we'd see who ran out of 'gas' first.



Maybe we should have a competition then... GO!  ::shock::

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## ThePreserver

Yeah, I've heard it's the sound of blood rushing through near your ears, much like holding a shell up to your ear and hearing your own vessels.  I can do it at will, and I always have.  It happens involuntarily when I yawn as well.

Perfectly normal.

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## Alycia

Yes! I can do this! And so can my friend. I had never told anyone I could do this until she brought it up once. Other than her, this is the only time I have heard of someone being able to do this.

I can also hear the faint ringing  :smiley:

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## ace12201

i am new to any type of forum ever because i really never cared too much to bother with anything i thought i could google myself. but now i find that no one has an explanation on my ability accept some very few people that are able to do some of the same things. and who experience the same sensations or hear the sounds.

I for a long time have been able to flex or something of the sort in what feels like my brain or somewhere behind my eyes that makes my whole body feel tingly. i didnt think much of it as a kid but now that im older and experiencing lots of unhealthy body functions i kind of want to know whats happening to me. last night i had the worst headache of my life. i flexed this thing during a small headache and later that night i dont know if it had anything to do with it but it grew worse. when i do this can feel my vains pulsing and hear my heart beating within getting a little faster and within 3 or 4 seconds of flexing i feel sudden exhaustion and need to take in a deep breath. but at the same time ive done this before doing amazing things like when i break dance or flip. i can flip higher or perform better flares when breakdancing. I can hold a flag position on a post for a longer time then usual. or hold a better posture when doing a handstand.
i do have to admit my whole child hood ive had a higher blood pressure than others which didnt bother me til i joined gymnastics team, they made me stop working out for a while cuz i would have sudden bloody noses. and when i joined the military i had a waver to join cuz my blood pressure would not go down. ive always had per-hypertension. i guess i just needed to finally tell someone that kind of had an understanding of the feeling i get when i do this flexing sensation. the people i tell around me dont understand me and tell me to go to the hospital which i will soon.

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