If I look at a wall, I know what it feels like. If I look at a statue that's within a glass display, I've already touched it. I can look at any instrument for three to five seconds, and know how it feels, pretty much. As a child I was fascinated by how things felt at the touch, especially pearl necklaces, and couches, and I would often compare feels, whether the objects were smoother or rougher than each other. Fast forward to sophomore year of college, when I began practicing visualization in my practice, I suddenly started to feel the sticks in my hands, as if I was actually holding them and playing. So, what I started doing was exploiting this "side effect" and visualizing myself practicing, but thinking about different types of sticks or instruments in my hands. This continued for about a week and I began to notice that the mere sight of them would trigger the visualization exercise, and before I could even touch the item, I already knew what it would feel like.

This really came in handy during the latter two years of college. I had an hour and forty minute commute to school and I would sit on the bus or at the train station and visualize myself practicing, so that I'd be ready for my physical practice. I eventually expanded this to cymbals, tambourine, xylophone, etc. The technique really is based in meditation and an extremely active imagination and my body reacts to the perception of my mind (I feel weight, balance, and texture just by looking at the object). It's also good to physically practice with several variants of items to introduce new sensations to your mind and body, so that it has a reference to draw from. Even this form of feeling is connected to my ASMR triggers, but it does take more time to "charge up." If I don't use it for a while, the strength of that connection with objects weakens. Therefore, I have to practice using it often and I will look at a wall, a pearl necklace or anything, and visualize how they feel. For me it is a type of telekinesis, and even though I'm not actually moving objects, I really can almost touch them with my mind.