Thread: cold chill behind your back?

Hi i am curious to know what is the scientific term for the feeling of cold chill behind your back? People claim that it's a soul that is beside you...hrmm i wanna know if there is an explanation for this sensation that may direct to how our brain reacts... thanks!

Airiness, like a cold chill? Sounds like the hairs on your skin erecting themselves.

I read somewhere that there's an area in the brain that's activated when people have the feeling that there's something present which they can't see. It's a useful adaptation: in the wild you don't always see predators, so it's good to be on your guard even if you haven't seen any danger yet. If this brain area 'flashes' it's likely that your body responds in some ways, for example by giving you cold chills.
I'm not an expert so please don't take this as a fact, but it seems plausible to me.

Originally Posted by Pendragon

Airiness, like a cold chill? Sounds like the hairs on your skin erecting themselves.

I read somewhere that there's an area in the brain that's activated when people have the feeling that there's something present which they can't see. It's a useful adaptation: in the wild you don't always see predators, so it's good to be on your guard even if you haven't seen any danger yet. If this brain area 'flashes' it's likely that your body responds in some ways, for example by giving you cold chills.
I'm not an expert so please don't take this as a fact, but it seems plausible to me.

Yup..sounds like what im really referring too...but sometimes i do have cold chill behind me..even when there's nobody behind me. most of the people in my place says that those are the things "not human"..is near you. But i do not believe in that, so i am curious on what really causes it.

Originally Posted by xenobiology

Hi i am curious to know what is the scientific term for the feeling of cold chill behind your back? People claim that it's a soul that is beside you...hrmm i wanna know if there is an explanation for this sensation that may direct to how our brain reacts... thanks!

Goosebumps

from the web:

"When the muscles at the base of the hair contract it is because they are reacting to a message from your sympathetic nervous system (SNS). This is the part of your nervous system that is most active in times of stress.

So when you are feeling stress-related emotions like:

* Fear
* Anger
* Awe (what you feel when you see something very striking or special)

Your SNS kicks in and your hairs prick up. The reason your body reacts this way is to do with needing to protect yourself from a threat. Some animals get goose bumps when facing an enemy because it makes them look bigger if all their hair is on end (for example a porcupine).

Another reason for us getting goose bumps is the cold. When we feel very chilly, the muscles at the bottom of our hairs contract. The hairs then stick up, to trap heat from our bodies. In reality, we don’t have enough body hair for it to make a difference.
Goosebumps are vestigial for humans, meaning many years ago they were useful to us. Nowadays, we don’t use them any more, but we haven’t evolved out of them."

Source
Great Ormond Street Hospital webiste: 27 May 2008

Your body will react to changes in temp which allegedly occur when a ghost is about..if you believe in ghosts that is. So if the air is colder cos a ghost is passing by or for some other reason, then your muscles will contract and hairs will become erect. If you are spooked, same thing will occur. Stress causes muscle contraction also, which is often why when we are stressed we feel cold and why when cold we feel stressed, it's all connected.

Sometimes I get a chill concentrated on one spot of my body, kinda of eeire. That along side precognition kind of keeps me in the 'pseudo' realm of life. Whatever science says about it. But yeah the explanation Pendragon gave seems about right for a scientific non pseudo person.

And ToR's.

i don't believe that the feeling is entirely involutary. over the years i've felt the feeling described as a cold chill, frisson, and the holy chill. recently, through my own desire to understand the limits of power over your own body and its surroundings, i started practicing the process of controlling various functions that are casually assumed to be fairly uncontrollable. the latest of my trails have proven that you can dialate you eyes voluntarily, change body temperature by 3 degrees up or down and send a chill down your spine for hours. i haven't found anyplace that has fully been able to explain the place where each of these powers derived from, or how it is that i was able to control them... now i still can't wiggle my ears, so perhaps it's just a talent based in control that only few are born with... but regardless, i'm still confused as to the purpose and reasoning behind these mysterious actions...