The Calming Power of Baseball Cards

By Precious Sanders @pdsanders99

I never imagined there would come a day when baseball meets ASMR, but then again, the universe does not wait for us to expect-hope-want something to happen before it decides to make it a reality.  For anyone not familiar with the concept of ASMR, you can read more about it in this article I wrote a couple years ago on the topic.  Very briefly, ASMR stands for “Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response,” and it is a term used in reference to a reaction to stimuli that involves feelings of calm and a pleasurable tingling sensation.  Some people experience the phenomenon, and others do not.

A simple YouTube search yields literally thousands of ASMR videos, and one of the more popular creators of such videos goes by the pseudonym “SOUNDsculptures,” in a poetically appropriate nod to what she strives to accomplish with each recording.  A few days ago, SOUNDsculptures posted the video below, in which she slowly breaks open and flips through a box of 2014 Topps Triple Threads Baseball cards.  Sound boring?  For many people, it will be.  But if you settle back to watch it with no other distractions, and you allow yourself to forget everything but the video itself, you just might find yourself lulled into a calm, trance-like state.