What is "the Chills"?

I wasnt sure whether this should be classed at paranormal so if any mod feels it isnt please move it to the right section.
I have seen a few threads about the chills and somepeople relating it to powers such as TK.
What i want to know is what is chills? What i know already is it comes from the brain and has something to do with the muscles which make the hairs rise but what i also saw was that people get chills when they have a fever yet people have chills without being ill. Getting the chills is a way of raising the body temperature, this was another thing i read.
Im assuming their are people on ATS that know a lot more than i know and please share your information with me, post links write about it and may be your own experiences.
Thanks

To me, the "chills" is that cold,tingling sensation you get up your spine from time to time for no apparent reason. Inexplicable goose bumps and such.

Whether or not it's related to anything paranormal is a matter of opinion. I tend to think that it may be but it may also be due to minute temperature discrepancies in the environment.

[edit on 5-3-2007 by SpeakerofTruth]

I can do it on command, such as stimulating my root area (chakra). It feels like a rush of blood going from root to spine and is split apart into the different limbs of your body. I can also control the direction it will go.

But I don't have any idea of what causes it. I researched it a while back with a friend that has them frequently, and the strongest theory (per instinct) we had was that it was related to Kundalini.

I had a bad infection last month where I was constantly getting the chills. However, in my opinion it is different than the feeling you get when you get the tingling sensation running up and down your spine. That will happen to me sometimes when I hear a particular song, or feel excited about something. Other times it happens for no apparent reason. Whenever that happens for no reason we used to say "Somebody just stepped on my grave!" Not that I really believe that!

My experience of getting "the chills" is not that resonating to me. My Great-Aunt used to tell explain it as, "someone just walked over your grave". It seemed to me more of of an empathic response. The most profound experience I have had in that area was meeting someone (a friend of a friend) that just shook me up. My instinct could only tell me that somehow, someway, this person was some kind of mortal enemy. We never had any kind of real trouble but I just didn't want to be around him. Somehow his very presence in the room made me leary. I passed him in a car on the road once and my attention was immediately drawn to him. I thought, "that's the guy". It's not rational but completely intruistic, it was about feeling wrong.

what i also saw was that people get chills when they have a fever yet people have chills without being ill. Getting the chills is a way of raising the body temperature, this was another thing i read.

Physiologically speaking, the metabolic release of heat from our cells when we shiver indeed does raise the body temperature. It's a natural, heat generating activity that happens when one is cold.

When one is ill, the body may reset it's actual set point (like your thermostat at home) to a higher level. To reach that level, your body produces reactions that create heat; one of those things is shivering.

The body can reset it's temperature set point either from acclimation (you move to a different geographical location), from the turning of the seasons (which is why a late summer heat wave feels hotter than it would in the middle of summer), and by illness, among other things.

Homeostasis is always sought in the body, and the body will do things to bring it's temperature to the setpoint that the metabolism sets for that moment/episode/place.

It's a fascinating process...and somewhat complicated. What I've written above is very simplified, so please be aware of that. There are all sorts of laws and chemical issues to take into account, but the above is a very broad, general idea of how body temp works in regards to shivering.

However, since you've posted in the paranormal forum, I suspect you mean less actual shivering and more the whole "goose on your grave" or back of the neck tingling.

Again, not taking into account any reason for it, the muscles just under the top layer of skin can actually pull on each individual hair, and raise it. This accounts for goosebumplies as well. Those muscles are called arrector pili, and are at the base of every hair shaft in your body.

The activation of the arrector pili and it's basic reason is pretty well not understood. The best guess from most scientists are that it is a remnant of an instinctive awareness mechanism, that would alert us to the presence of potential problems. When I hear something unexpected, I can literally feel the hairs in my ears turning towards the sound. It's a weird feeling, but it's what happens.

Why are they triggered? It's still unknown. Could it be from a sensed presence? A "vibe"? Peripherial vision involvement? An intuition? It's not known.

It is real. It does happen. There are sometimes physical reasons for it, and then sometimes things aren't easily explained or quantified.

As for me, I am less inclined to accept the physiological/anatomical answer as the *only* piece in this puzzle. I don't know the rest of it, but I really, really doubt that it's just "that" and nothing else.

Regards-
Aimless

i always refer toit as some one walking on my grave because thats what my family and friends always called it and thats what i know of the chills but i have no idea where that saying comes from it would be interesting to find out where it comes from

Chills from getting cold are different than chills you get from music. There is alot of confusion with the chills.

I used to get these randomly a few years back, like loads everyday, and I made a thread about it also.

It's different now. It sorta happens when I think about deep topics, like the sort of topics you would find on ATS. So when I'm in bed at night and my mind strays to one of these topics, I'll suddenly feel a really really strong chill throughout my entire body. It's very weird but I like it .

[edit on 2/6/09 by Kappo]

I never thought the chills from an illness were in any way related to "a chill that makes your hair stand up".

I have had that happen one time, and I thought it was a instinctual reaction. Just like with animals when their hair stands up, it makes them appear bigger, that is what I thought happened when people are shocked/scared and their hair stands up (though much rarer).