Spontaneous tactile sensations

Spontaneous tactile sensations are the experience of sensations across the body occurring without any obvious or immediate physical trigger. This results in feelings of seemingly random yet distinct tingling sensations that occur across the skin and within the body. Depending on the psychoactive substance consumed, these vary greatly in their styles of sensation.

This effect is capable of manifesting itself across the three different levels of intensity described below:

Level 1

Mild

At the lowest level, the sensation can be described as subtle and fleeting tingling sensations throughout the body. These sensations do not impair physical motor control and can essentially be ignored if one wishes to do so.

Level 2

Distinct

At this level, the sensation becomes very difficult to ignore. It can be described as distinct tingling sensations that are intense enough to partially impair a person’s motor control and act as a significant distraction that impairs one’s focus.

Level 3

Overwhelming

At the highest level, the tingling sensations increase enough to become a powerful and uncontrollable focus point of the person’s attention. This can feel completely overwhelming and heavily impairs a person’s motor control, leaving them either lying or sitting down, incapable of standing up due to the all-encompassing sensations.

Spontaneous tactile sensations are often accompanied by other coinciding effects, such as tactile enhancement and physical euphoria. They are most commonly induced under the influence of moderate dosages of psychedelic compounds, such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. However, they can also occur under the influence of stimulants, cannabinoids, and dissociatives.

Style Variations

The specific differences between each potential style of spontaneous bodily sensation can be broken down into the following variations:

Moving vs Motionless

Spontaneous physical sensations will either move up and down various parts of the body in different directions or they will remain still and consistent in their position.

Constant vs Irregular

Spontaneous physical sensations will either be constantly present throughout a significant portion of the experience or they will irregularly and temporarily manifest themselves at random points for differing lengths of time.

Sharp vs Soft

Spontaneous physical sensations will either be perceived as sharp, cold, and electric or as soft, warm, and gentle.

All-encompassing vs Location specific

Spontaneous physical sensations can either be felt across every square inch of the skin in an evenly distributed fashion or in very specific locations such as the ends of the fingers and toes, up and down the spinal column, or throughout the head.

Euphoric vs Dysphoric

At appropriately high dosages, spontaneous bodily sensations can either be interpreted as pleasurable to experience or they can manifest in the opposite direction and become uncomfortable to experience.

This effect seems to be mentioned within the following trip reports: