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It is in my experience that empathy is a powerful tool some don't fully see its power
I would like this topic to cover all aspects of an empath
anyone who could share some input on the matter would be very valued highly.
It seems empathy can give you all forms of insight sometimes even see the future of others and warning of impending danger.
Even picking up skills you never learned or heard of.
Is this a malfunction of your energies being mixed up with other people's outward energy?
So in simple words,

what do you about the power of empathy?

Yes, I suppose you could call empathy a tool.

I've no doubt that some who own it, use it to their own advantage, but then there are those who allow themselves to be overwhelmed by the feelings of others.

I think it's important to mention that anyone who calls themselves an empath and claims to be aware of future events connected to those they are close to are aware that what they 'see' or 'feel' will come to pass is usually something that anyone could 'see' or 'feel' given the history of the person concerned ie: if your a driver who is'nt good at parking and upgrades to a bigger car, chances are your going to get your new car damaged.

I have know those who have said their lives are made misserable becuase of their empathic abilities. All I can say about that is learn control, it really is that simple.

The beauty of empathy is in the sharing and understanding of the good as well as the not so good things in life.

I agree with ~Sinora~, save for the fact that I call empathy an "attribute" not a tool. Though ~Sinora~ seemed to have speculatively called it a tool as a guess.

It to me, is a system of feeling that declares the energy of any individual into the thought process of the empath in order to gain a perspective as to what the individual is feeling at that time in order to help cope and or help the individual deal with their emotional turmoils in a time of negativeness.

Or to understand what the individual is thinking on a more positive note and maintain a subtle tie with said individual in order to keep up with them on a social standpoint.

It is as well, a very good attribute for discerning whether or not any type of situation reveals maliciousness or subterfuge taking place.

Picture it as a sort of well "sookie" from the HBO series: Trueblood's, process of telepathic ability, save for in the sense that the empath actually feels what others feel on a constant basis, unless the individual has learned to turn it on and off on a whim.

It has its advantages and disadvantages... Which is why if an empath has this "attribute" then they would need to learn how to control it to be able to use it as an advantage.

Empathy can also be a curse too, for one so sensitive it is harder to control than most other gifts. But in saying that too, empathy can be sometimes good, just in my experience it has been nothing but a curse and although I can control it, I know of others that can't.

I understand fully what you all are saying
i have a very hard time controlling it and sometimes i haven't
but its power is still there ether way

There are ways to shield from energies of others. You just have to learn them. I'm extremely empathic myself but I'm terible with shields so at times I get others emotions confused with my own.

sometimes my empathy gives me unwanted sense of dread.
it is a terrible sad feeling
usually caused by the lack of constant attention of those i care about.
which in turn
which makes me seem like a clingful stalker
that often results in people staying away from me
it seems paranoia is a weakness of empathy

its like reliving a death of a loved one over and over again.

what methods are there
to controll empathy powered feelings!

Oh SleeperKing, that is so true. 2 weeks before my mother passed I felt this huge pressure on my shoulders, like a dark cloud hanging over me, but when I went to visit her only to find out that she was admitted to hospital just a half hour before I got there, that cloud of heaviness lifted and it was then I knew what empathy really was.... *ugh.

Sleeperking > try thinking something along the lines of whatever will be will be.

Letting go of fear and worry, your own as well as anyone elses will give you the freedom to give comfort without attempting to carry the burden of another.

I highly agree with you Nocara, it is both a gift and a Curse at times. Especially when you want to like and trust someone, but the vibes you get from them are telling you, keep them at a distance.
I have learned to trust my instinct with this Empathy Gift, and it has directed me more wisely.

yess my friends say i have a belleding heart because i feel for every one and even people i dont know some times it is most deffinatly a curse i feel thing comming before they get here...... i sometime regret having it because i get taken advanage of

I thought I had that freedom sinora
but everytime I manage to get a grip of my sanity
someone comes along
and takes my heart
then i relive the fear of lost love
before and after it happens
nightmares giving way
to a future I hope never comes but does anyway
so i search the depths of the very thing that brings about my own misery
empathy
and I try so hard to use it as a weapon against the inevitble
but only to wield a sword against a ghost
but I never stop trying to turn things around for the better of everyone's good
including my own!

I've never found it to be particularily useful.

It's not the emotions that disgust me, but the undisciplined manner in which they influence actions.

yes I understand
also very very tiring to work at controll
how everything seems to fall apart when your not strongest

Once you have control over your empathic abilities it is very useful especially if you have those hard to read people who do need consul from time to time. Being able to read them by what emotions the are speaking non-verbally can help you better gage what is really bothering them.

once i can be in controll
i can do that easily

sometimes the heart clouds the mind

I have found empathy to be a very useful attribute in counselling sessions with clients. Being able to see that little extra into them makes the process move along alot faster as I have found. Especially when I draw out the negative emotions and send them positive so when they leave they feel better and know they did some good positive work.

yet i have the abilty but have its greatest weakness
how I long for a guide
more than ever now
to use my empathy

Empath comes from many generation for they learnt from many high class teacher sometime and adopted the best in the living and the way divineness of empath is most powerful as the celestial profile is very sound of empath backed by many past generation than student of different arcane different from empath.

Being an empath is both a gift and a curse. It took me a long time to realize not everyone was able to do this. I do trust my gut instinct on people and the times when I know them long enough to verify, I am right on.
The part that disturbs me the most is when I am around angry or really sad people. It is really really hard not to get lost in their feelings.
I have found that I can not only absorb feelings from others, but I can also project feelings and help to lift people up. In this sense it is a gift.
I get claustraphobic in crowds and especially family gatherings cause me anxiety.
If anyone knows a good book or website they trust that can help people learn to live with this, please let me know.

Guardian

Both Gift and Curse, especially when you really want to trust, but its telling you not too. Listen to it then as it is a gift.
Sheilding skills work well to block negative eneries when you feel yourself being pulled into someones personnal tragedies for pity sake.

To reduce panic i would suggest you learn about self hypnosis, this will help you relax and from there you can focus on things, you should find the positive sighns of your gift

Meditation is a very good medium to help you learn to understand and control your empathic abilities.

I have found that my empathic abilities have helped calm people down in stressful situations helped people out of black spots etc.

but what of the skills you can pick up with empathy?
it is odd how you have the skills for something
with no training or experince

There is a certain few I can feel their pain, hurt anger..I get this empty feeling inside just by a word or something..Hell may not be empath...

my empathy tends to be in the form of paranormal experiences. if someone very close to me physically feels pain, i can feel it too. but emotionaly i can feel empathy for anyone, not just close friends

Well i wouldnt call being an empath a curse or gift, its just something i have lived with all my life. And as ive gotten older gets stronger.
I have picked up useful tips along the way tho.
#1 no drugs (they inhibit your control on it, not to mention exaggerate false emotions)
#2.stay away from negative people (for a long time i condemned myself as an evil horrible person when in fact i was merely sucking up peoples intents around me and reflecting them back)
#3. Watch dramatic movies alone (it is not cute to see a grown woman sniffle)
#4. Take long walks alone in public - no ipod/phone, it serves as a controlled practice environment to control what emotions you absorb from the right people (ex:if you see someone angry sitting on a bench quickly walk past n hum a merry tune, if you see a happy couple walk in their wake focus and smile)

Hope this helps :)

I find empathy to be mostly a blessing. I am able to use it in my profession to help others. I have learned to shield quite well over the years. There are times some really strong emotions may get through or if I am having a difficult time, my shields may weaken. Meditation, visualization and self awareness are key to managing emathic "over flow".

Deola-Good advice.
I think I will try the walking in public alone and start focusing on what I am picking up, what I can easily filter out and the good I can absorb.

Sleeperking ? No-one can steal what you give freely, be it your heart or anything else.

So, if in the future you feel your emotions are being played upon, if you keep the above in mind I think you may find it alot easier to move on without too much remorse.

I find it just gets me into trouble, or makes people avoid me. Most people don't like someone else to feel how their feeling, or sometimes even thinking.
So I spend most of my time trying to ignore it, but it sometimes still comes out in an innocent comment.
I also have my own depression to deal with, so standing next to another depressed person near kills me.

some of the hardest things I have ever done with empathy
is picking deception fromthe ones I care about the most

know you are being lied too
but can not prove anything at all
you just know
however sometime fate throws you a bone here and there
and you get a chance to expose their lies
however again
you must chose if that is worth the possible pain that will bring
for you and for others it could effect
but I feel the truth must always be persued
no matter what


sometimes

the truth always sets you free but does not always give you happiness!

First of all I refuse to call myself an empath.

I am a normal person who is able to read people...

Things can be picked up by posture, by tonality, even by the clothes that they wear. After one watches people and the responses which people make to questions and situations, the eye movments the slight body movement, the language...ect, which they use, will tell you a lot about a person.

Some people are easly influenced...lol, so lets say that an abreaction is also easly transferred

Just my thoughts...

i had a friend years ago that is an empath. she and i were sort of online enemies at first but during our arguments she sensed something about me and decided to stop. she felt my pain she said...but it wasn't caused by her but through someone we both knew that was causing the problems between us. over time we became great friends and she sent a gift to me in the mail....it was an ankh pendant and she said that....it felt like me. which was sweet and dead on. I believe the power of empathy is a true gift to those that are in tune with it and know how to control it as with any gift or learned ability that we know.

i do believe that empaths can sense what people are feeling better than others. However I think that its a skill that has to be developed

there is a myth of a baby
who stopped crying evrytime its mother was in a bad mood

and would just stare at the mother untill she calmed down


so you could say

some are born with empathy

but not all have the gift to controll it

I think that is what must be learned!

also what would you do
to discern lies with empathy
is it your gut telling you this wrong


i hear cops are trained to use empathy to tell if someone is lying

what are your thoughts on this

Well Sometimes i feel that its a curse disguised as a blessing.

As I have gotten older I have gotten better at reading body language and sensing meaning behind tone and being able to decipher the subtext of what someone is saying.

Regardless of what is actually happening (having some sort of paranormal gift or just being observant and perceptive) there are times that I feel like I am violating another persons personal space. It's not intentional but if I am picking up on something that is not specifically being said to me or being revealed to me it makes me feel uneasy.

Specifically, this relates to a discussion on something serious not an everyday conversation. Whomever I am talking with has chosen to share specific things and to keep some things private. Occasionally, I end up feeling confused. What I have sensed/inferred/observed often conflicts with what I have been told.

when you sense direct dishonesty towards you

but you lack a drive at times to deal with lies

do you think it is better to let sleeping dogs lie or wake them up to live life better

when you have the power to stop lies but at the cost of pain for each other
is it worth it

I have found that it is a blessing and a curse for that when im sad I can just be around happy people and im all better but then when there is anger and sadness I become that .

I hao agree with some of the others who have posted to this topic. I have struggled with my empathic abilities over the years. Being an empath during puberty was a nightmare. My son seems to be going through that very thing as we speak. It is hard to determine whose emotions you are feeling.

I have by no means mastered my ability, but I am getting better at it everyday. Years of experience definitely seem to help in this matter.

I have had this my whole life but most people don't like it when you are aware of things they don't want others to know. I don't mean thoughts but how they are feeling. I can hear it in their words and sometimes see it in written words. It's a sensitivity. When I am around certain types of people it totally changes my personality and even after all the years I cannot shield it out if it is family members.

We are affected by subtle things like power lines and energy fields others wouldn't recognize to the point of it making us sick. Not all are actually what one would call a psychic but the awareness of the energy and emotions of others one comes into contact with makes it seem this way. It is almost like the profilers.

Some sites say this is passed hereditarily and I don't know how they know this but there seems to be some predisposition to that at least. It doesn't mean anyone is anymore psychic than anyone else, just some are and others not.

empathy is a gift that can be a curse i agree with most of what has been said especially about controling and shielding the empathic influences
to suffer anothers pain is not the most wonderul feeling in the world, but sometimes it is necessary to free that person and allow them to grow
there have been times when in order to help one come to terms with an issue i have had no choice but to accept their pain as my own not enjoyable but necessary i

if i didnt have empathy. I wouldn't have my girlfriend. Forgive and forget. Just brush it off. and don't keep track of everything you've forgiven.

Like nike says - buy our shitty product.

well i my self am empathetic but have not learned to sheild i have heard from freind that if you use certain crytals that it helps sheild you

I am just now learning about mine, with one it is really jard for me to handle especially when my own emotions are running me crazy and as for shields i do not know how to use them so thinks i need to watch this thread more...I also need to follow up on empath

so how do you utlize this power for impending disaster or danger

when you get that gut feeling something bad is gonna happen

tell me thoughts on this part of the subject and how you deal with it

I can only handle it when I am with a small group of people and they are not under the influence of alcohol. Otherwise I end up passing out from the strength of everyones feelings.

the only empathy I've experienced is when I've gone through exactly what another person went through so i "empathize" with them. it's better than sympathy because your experiences taught you what not to do so you can pass on your wisdom so they dont make the same mistake. it's different than sympathy because you felt what they feel and whatnot. sympathy is next to pity in my opinion. can you imagine if people claimed to be sympaths? what a lame superficial power that would be, just making people feel patronized. lol.

I guess feeling other people's pain is one thing, and feelings yours is another... Still it's difficult when you get them confused.. :)

Ignorance is a good thing.. Or maybe just developing your "ignorance" skills would be a better idea.. I mean, why on earth should I be responsible for the pain of others? If I feel your pain, I feel extremely sorry for you. But then life's full of it and we each have our own pain. If I feel your pain and can't do anything about it, then so be it.

U gotta be cruel to be kind, I guess.. At times..


Lotsa lurve.

I'm very grateful for finding this thread. I haven't found that many empaths in my life and sorry, but it's nice to know that I'm not alone in figuring this thing out. I look at is like a blessing, but it is definately difficult to control and understand. For the longest time I tried to ignore it, but it never really worked. I also figure that if I'm at a place where there could be potenial danger it might benifit me. As for sheilding it, I have no clue, but am very interested. I have found that Psychedelics greatly enhance it while things like alcohol and pills seem to numb you from it. One of the hardest things I deal with is not manipulating the people around you. I find it great when talking to people who are feeling bad, I've become the mentor of my friends. But when you really want something its hard not to use peoples feelings against them. As for seeing into the future, it has never happened to me that I know of, but when you get to know someone's mindset real well, it's helped me locate where they are. If anyone has any insight into empathy. I could use alot of help in learning about it.
- Lucien

I cannot describe another's experience, all I know is my own, to clarify my standpoint.

Empathy has been a curse and a joy for me. I have yet to learn control over it (is there an easy way to?) I find that it can be useful in knowing that my friends are sometimes just as sad as I am, even when they're trying to look happy, so I can help them to feel a little better in themselves. The only other thing I have as a power is seeing auras. I cannot tell the future, at least as far as I know (I don't think deja vu counts?) I can communicate with spirits too, but that's because they used to be living beings. I do not always do this, as it would look odd for me to be doing this anywhere normal. I do enjoy being a little different, but I do not tell everyone this, because then they'd probably think of me as odd, weird, crazy, ect...

Its all about boundaries~ keeps ones energy contained and not absorbing anothers'~ Just because you can do something, does not mean that you should...

Empathy for me is somthing I live, breath and do every second of every day..

To pick up on emotions of those around me and turn that energy into fuel I can sustain myself on.
(tricky tool to have under your belt if you have kids)

For me, it all deprends on the surrounding energy and emotion..if the majority of people around me are happy and carfree then so am I..
If Im around my kids all day long and naptime in coming up I feel grumpy and lathargic.

But I have it down now to where I can memorize the emotional patterns of one person..and say for example Im in a mall shopping and my daughter that like to run around becomes hidden..I dont search for very long..
( and I still wig her out with that trick too)

I wanna learn to read minds and not just emotions, and I want to be able to pick up better shilding methiods..
BUT...its a learn in progress..and I wouldnt give my gift up for anything..

As for the use of empathy as a tool for police to use to get the the truth is not true. We are taught Observational Psychology, which is the ability to notice micro expressions in the interview subject. Whether they flush when you ask a question or if the look the right to make up an answer or the left retrieving an existing memory.

As for empathy it s the ability to feel what and other is feeling. It's a may to read the feeling and general intent of another. Depending on how adept one is it can stretch over long distances. It's a skill that you hone over years if you adept at it.

As for the use of empathy as a tool for police to use to get the the truth is not true. We are taught Observational Psychology, which is the ability to notice micro expressions in the interview subject. Whether they flush when you ask a question or if the look the right to make up an answer or the left retrieving an existing memory.

As for empathy it s the ability to feel what and other is feeling. It's a may to read the feeling and general intent of another. Depending on how adept one is it can stretch over long distances. It's a skill that you hone over years if you adept at it.

My sister is an empath and from what she tells me, it's no fun. Being able to feel the emotions of others is very draining and really weighs down the soul.

I'm an empath myself...and yes, at times, it is hard, but even when it was a hard path to follow, it was still a blessing to someone and sometimes, myself.

I consider empathy a way that the Divine gave us to connect to the universe around us and all it's inhabitants....on a higher level than the physical plane.

Empathy must be controlled...you must know when to shield yourself. People can drain you...experiences, can drain you. A sure sign that you're being sucked dry is when you feel that you've lost yourself in those around you and in circumstance.

Retreat for a while and build yourself back up and focus on honing this gift so that it's beneficial instead of a burden.

If I'm not mistaken, third world tribes use empathy to heal their sick and wounded. I know that they have a leader, Shaman orsomething similar to that. When they sing and sway to music or precussion beats, they unite together as one. I believe that is one sound example of empathy.