These people make a living with bizarre repetitive YouTube videos that give users 'pins and needles'
Maria says she is going to squeeze your shoulder. She's explains she's going to let it go and then gently rub it between her hands, back and forth. She describes her movements as firm yet soft. "I hope you feel relaxed," Maria calmly and quietly says in the video. "I hope you feel at peace. I hope you feel like you're ready to sleep." Maria, who operates YouTube channel Gentle Whispering ASMR, is arguably the queen of the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR) genre. She'll never physically touch her millions of viewers. But people seek her videos out to feel the tingling sensation that her clips give them, allowing them to unwind or go to bed. "It's a very pleasant, natural high state that you want more and more of," Maria, who asked that her last name be withheld for privacy reasons, told CNBC. The demand for Maria's videos is so great that she's one of a handful of people who have quit their day jobs to ...