I've talked to people and seen stories that believe electricity can be felt as a vibration or some other way by touching something that is electrified. I don't have any questions about electromagnetic hypersensitivity aka better call Saul , or any questions about feeling the muscle spasms from electric or static shocks.
A specific example I can think of is someone touching the steel support beam of an industrial machine and saying they can feel the leakage current, can people feel electricity without feeling the muscle spasms associated with the shock?
For example if you applied an electric signal to your hand that was large enough for you to feel, then you took a drug that prevented your muscles from contracting and then applied the same signal, would you still feel it?
I asked this at skeptics.se before but it's on hold for being unclear.
Best Answer
ESD discharge of 1~10A from 10kV charged body and 1000pf moist finger with 10ps rise time and 1 to 10 Ohm arc resistance and 10~100ns pulse duration is too short to activate any muscles but can certain be felt after walking across a nylon carpet with neoprene shoes and touching a doorknob. You are less like to feel it but see a bigger arc by holding a key because the current density is now dimished more than a 100-fold by increase in key contact area.
Case 2: If you are charged up on an insulated platform to 1 Million volts, and have excellent insulation as your hair is fully extended and then relaxes in say 1 second when turned off., you may barely be able to feel 1uA the threshold of feeling for most people.
More likely you feel the motion of the hair on the back of your neck touching your skin.
This is also the sensation one gets when a major lightning cloud passes overhead or standing near a large transforming going under isolated insulation BDV tests with the hair on the back of your head with 50kV on transformer tank 5m away and stray ions flowing thru your hair while you are standing behind a steel grating cage and even the paint gets charged up. Even electrically floating cables 30m away strapped to wall, I have seen heard arc every 10 seconds zap zap zap from this DC field. Not so with an AC field. everyone felt these effects but no muscles were affected and touching the tank paint or cage only got a mild ESD discharge. HiV DC insulation tests are so much fun, but not safe for newbies.