To explain the concept, I'll have to pick a form of meditation. Every form of meditation deals with the same concepts and outcomes, but uses different methods (Zen, Shingon, Tantric meditation, etc). Although I've been recently practicing a lot more Zen meditation, I will explain the concept through Vipassana meditation, as that is my specialty.

The idea behind Vipassana is that you untangle your thoughts and separate them into discrete sensory experiences. It's similar to sounds — all sounds can be divided into thousands of compounded sine waves. Thoughts can be divided into compounded sensory experiences.

We have 6 different sense planes (below are really oversimplified definitions):

Outer Visual — Anything you can see

Outer Auditory — Anything you can hear

Outer Somatic — Anything you physically feel in your body

Inner Visual — Anything you can picture in your mind

Inner Auditory — Anything you can hear in your mind (inner voice, etc)

Inner Somatic — Emotions/Feelings

As beginners practice Vipassana meditation, they choose one sense plane (or the absence of a sense plane) to focus on. Without forcing thoughts to arise, or forcing thoughts to leave, you allow thoughts (in the given sense plane) to flow into your mind, take note of them, and allow them to drift away. As you practice, you can eventually break apart your thoughts into different sense planes which makes them more manageable and easier to control or accept. It's the ol' "divide and conquer".

ANYWAYS

As you get a little more advanced, you start dealing with something called "Flow". This is present in all forms of meditation, and in most religions. Some may call it divine inspiration (God), some may call it the expansion / contraction of the universe, you guys call it ASMR.

Basically, when your concentration/equanimity/clarity start becoming refined, you'll start noticing the "change" between sensory experiences. If you imagine a dog walking down the street in your head, as long as there is movement (the image is not still), there is change. If you have a feeling in your body that is moving from one part of the body to another, there is change. Practiced meditation students can "isolate" the change, so there is no start point and there is no end point. There is only the change. And that is when you start to realize that the universe is built on change (expansions and contractions), and they are all equal and interconnected. It's like tapping into the "breathing" of the universe.

ANYWAYS, before we drift too far away, lets bring this back to ASMR. There are certain triggers that people have that allow them to temporarily feel this "change". And when you feel this "change" — this "flow" that permeates through the universe — your mind starts to detach from your grounded senses. The "self" begins to disappear. If you feel ASMR, you are feeling the first symptoms of the "no self": tingling or floating sensations, temporary euphoria/peace, etc. It's a very difficult sensation to describe to anybody who has never experienced it.

Anyways, I'm not really a teacher of meditation so i hope that wasn't too convoluted and confusing. The only point I wanted to make is that Buddhist monks and roshis have been playing around with ASMR long before we have.

edit: Another interesting point is that a lot of people's meditation practices are hindered because they get trapped in the seductive quality of these flow states.