I can voluntarily open my eustachian tubes and hold them open, without needing to yawn or swallow. Makes it much easier to clear the pressure in my ears when changing elevation (like when flying in a plane).
Huh I think I can do the same. I always thought it was one of those things that everyone could do.
Same. Sometimes I can’t, such as when congested, and it’s super annoying and unbalanced.
yep, I have the same issue when congested.
Feels like a super power when you’re scuba diving and you see all the other divers holding their noses!
Weirdly, I can only do this with my right ear. Definitely helps on airplanes.
You know that feeling you get when you listen to really awesome music and your hair stands on end and your skin has like an electric tingle all the way up and down? I can do that feeling at will. It’s called ‘voluntary frisson’, normally an autonomic response. Makes music a real.trip.
I can do this too.
It’s fun to watch people freak out when one can raise his body hair up on command. And since I have an abundance of body hair, the effect is pretty profound.
I think that’s the weirdest one I’ve seen yet
That’s actually pretty cool, I haven’t felt that in a pretty long time so I’m pretty jealous of you there
I can whistle while either exhaling or inhaling
Idk how special or weird it is but everyone I’ve tried to teach the skill to seems entirely incapable of doing the inhale one
It’s super useful for whistling complex songs or long bits without stopping, though
Hello. I, too, can do this!
I can wiggle my ears. I used to use it to entertain children, but today’s children are jaded and cynical.
I found I can wiggle my ears enough to walk my glasses back up my nose when they’ve slipped down.
I’ve just tried that and you’ve changed my life
now that’s useful!
Oh yeah, I didn’t even realise until you said it but I absolutely do that all the time
I can do it too! it was like discovering a new muscle! I can’t do either independently though
Child me would’ve loved to see that.
Adult me would love to see that
Well, I can still do a cartwheel, it’s good for surprising children. Thumbs bend backwards.
I can also reach all of me, which my husband seems to think odd, can put sunscreen on my own back so I don’t think it’s useless.
There is a tiny hole in the roof of my mouth that i can suck air through.
I can snap with my toes the same way people snap their fingers, but only with the right foot for some reason.
I used to do this all the time. Since I stopped, they don’t pop so easily anymore
I can
- Bend my fingers back almost to the back of my hand, effortlessly
- Raise/lower my eyebrows by a lot, even independently. I can make waving motions, as well!
- Touch the tip of my nose or chin with my tongue
- Wiggle my ears (though not independently)
- Roll my eyes up so only the whites at the bottom are visible
I used to able to touch my fingers to the back of my hand in middle school, but 10 years later I can only bend them back a little less than 3/4
It was a neat party trick while it lasted, because everyone thought it hurt me to do it lol
People are often so worried I’m pushing back hard and damaging my joints. So I let them push a finger back softly, then they’re shocked how easy it is, but no longer worried about my joints! 😁
I can trigger a few seconds vertigo attack when I lie down. If I do not think about it when going to bed, everything is fine. But if I think about it, then it invariably comes.
I can cock both eyebrows one at a time
I can touch my palms flat to the ground while trying to touch my toes
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Congratulations you have voluntary control of your tensor tympani muscle.
Should be a filter on tinder
huh. I didn’t know others couldn’t do this
Is that like the sound you get when you yawn? I can do that too!
I can hear the blood flowing in my head, including hearing my own pulse via the same sound.
That sounds stressful
Only if you stop hearing it.
have you considered getting your thyroid checked? anecdotal evidence, a former colleague mentioned they had thyroid issues (on the hyper side) and could hear their pulse in their head before solving it. somehow that bit of info stuck with me
Never heard this, interesting. I usually only hear it in places with low background noise, it kinda reminds me of the sound a CRT TV or something kinda like electricity, it’s not really like those things, but it’s the closest thing I can think of.
I can also hear myself blink if I have silence in a room.
I also actually do have a thyroid condition, but that could be pure coincidence.
heh, I can also hear myself blink sometimes in a quiet room. my thyroid tests are inconclusive though.
I can hum and whistle at the same time. Makes me sound kinda like a Theremin
Same! I liken it to a knock off version of Mongolian Throat singing.
Ah yes, multiphonics.
I love doing this because it sounds like you’re charging a laser weapon
Lol I just tried that to see how it works.
It’s hard because if you close your lips too much to whistle it restricts the airflow and kills the hum.
I can spiral my tongue, so that the front part is fully upsidr down - but only to the left. I can’t rotate it to the right at all for some reason, it’s like the equivalent muscles are missing.
I can rumble my eardrums. Mostly useless unless i wanna block out some annoying sound but i can only do it for like a minute at a time.
I think I have the same thing. Is yours also kinda connected to blinking? I can do it without blinking, but closing my eyes at the same moment as rumbling the eardrums feels easier and more natural than rumbling with eyes open.
I can do it without closing my eyes but when i was younger, I remember closing my eyes or scrunching my face made it easier to do. If you can wiggle your ears without lifting your eyebrows, it kind of feels like its the same muscle group that causes the rumbles. The rumbling sounds like white noise inside my head. Its caused by constricting Tensor Tympani muscle in the ear voluntarily. From Wikipedia:
Some individuals can voluntarily produce this rumbling sound by contracting the muscle. According to the National Institute of Health, “voluntary control of the tensor tympani muscle is an extremely rare event”,[5] where “rare” seems to refer more to the scarcity of test subjects and/or studies more than the percentage of the general population who have voluntary control. The rumbling sound can also be heard when the neck or jaw muscles are highly tensed as when yawning deeply. This phenomenon has been known since (at least) 1884.[6]
TIL; I always thought it was temporarily spiking your blood pressure that made that rumble. Now I’m no longer scared to do it
Same. I hold my eyes shut and I can activate it. I like to think of it as my automatic ear-cleaning mode.
Mine is connected to blinking, but it doesn’t always work.
I do this thing where I pop my ears (like when pressure changes from altitude) and then it’s like I’m hearing my breathing inside of my sinuses or something. When I breathe this way, it effectively blocks conversations I don’t want to overhear. Do other people do this, or am I odd?
I can do this! I forget the name for it but I can rumble my ears, and then I can also ‘pop’ them if I go a little further. I’m so grateful for it if I ever go through a pressure change, I can’t imagine how people cope without being able to do it.
Wait a minute. If I hold my jaw right, I do get a very short rumbling apart from my breath. Is that what you guys mean?
Sounds about right. I would connect this action to my jaw, not anything with my eyes like some others have said. When you say short, do you mean the sound doesn’t last very long? I can keep it going more or less as long as I want.
As long as I tense my jaw, I guess, but it’s kinda awkward for me. I kinda have to pop my jaw down and hold it. I feel I’m making a silly face when I do it, so I’m not holding it long.
I guess there’s multiple ways to hit it. I feel it in my jaw but it’s the same process as wiggling my ears (though I don’t have to do that at the same time if I don’t want to).
Mine is activated by blinking hard.
Yep. I can rumble, and I can click.
Gee, I can do this too! I’ve tried explaining it to others before but only one person ever got it
