Empathy - Do You Always Know The Person Beforehand?

[SoulSplat]

Transfered From Suscitatio Forum
Posted By: Merticus
On: February 08, 2008, 08:20:44 PM

When having an empathic impression do you usually tend to have known the person for short or long periods of time prior?

Do you ever have empathic impressions over the phone, computer, etc. without first meeting the person?

If yes, how do you know these "impressions" are true empathy and not psychological?  How do you distinguish?

[SoulSplat]

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Posted By: Jade
On: February 08, 2008, 08:46:16 PM

As long as I have a strong emotional link with them, I can pick things up easily, no matter how long I've known the person or whether or not I've physically met them.

It's easier to tell if it's true empathy if you can't really read them, like over the internet.  So if you suddenly feel very sad/angry/happy for no reason at all, it's pretty safe to bet that it's true empathy. =P  Unless of course you tend to have mood swings.

In real life, you have to take note of how much you're trying to read into the person.

That's my two cents.

[SoulSplat]

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Posted By: CerebralAssassin
On: February 17, 2008, 11:26:37 PM

Most of the time we can feel what other people feel and if they are sad or in pain.

We can feel them from very long distances and it truly does not matter how long we have know them, but when we link very heavily with someone we know if we should call them and check on them and know when they are in trouble or need or help.

[SoulSplat]

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Posted By: Paradox
On: February 24, 2008, 04:26:33 PM

.:Two Cents:.

Well where exactly do I start?  Before I got this shielding thing down I though I was bat(profanity) crazy, feeling several emotions at once not knowing where it's coming from.  It mad it very awkward attending funerals as a child and other social events.  I remember once at my great grandmother's funeral I almost flew into hysterical laughter but I quickly caught my self and covered my face like it was an attempt at blocking a sneeze.  One of the draw backs of being hyper sensitive empath I suppose.  I also hate going to hospitals, funeral homes or even some houses.  Strangely enough I don't have any issues in a grave yard unless I touch something.  I tend to block empathic signals from family and friends as much as possible because I kinda see it as an intrusion.  I can make the connection over the phone the internet or a distance just by thinking of someone I know and have established a previous link with.  There are also occasions (like the funeral story) where I'll get an intense burst of emotions flying at me from out of nowhere from someone I do not have a link with.  This is one of the reasons why I don't shop or pretty much leave my house during the holidays.  Crowds are very draining if I'm not typically focusing on something or putting full power to shields.

I guess the defining point for me on how do I know that its empathy and not psychological is that if feels rather foreign.  Like some type of under your skin crawly sensation but deeper.

[SoulSplat]

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Posted By: Inedible
On: February 24, 2008, 06:32:19 PM

When having an empathic impression do you usually tend to have known the person for short or long periods of time prior?

Do you ever have empathic impressions over the phone, computer, etc. without first meeting the person?

If yes, how do you know these "impressions" are true empathy and not psychological?  How do you distinguish?

It isn't one thing versus the other. Empathy is often an extension of what you get through observation and psychology. You won't get a road sign saying that beyond this line it is psychic power. The line is blurry, and often you will get a mixture that is part reason and part empathy. The trick is to learn to recognize information when you receive it. It is better to test it and see where it came from after the fact. It is normal to censor yourself in the moment of receiving information, and this has a tendency to shut down your empathy. With reason and psychology you can keep going anyway and that's the biggest difference for me.

[SoulSplat]

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Posted By: hagithpsi
On: February 24, 2008, 10:30:37 PM

When having an empathic impression do you usually tend to have known the person for short or long periods of time prior?

Do you ever have empathic impressions over the phone, computer, etc. without first meeting the person?

If yes, how do you know these "impressions" are true empathy and not psychological?  How do you distinguish?

I am empathic, although since I have no interest in the ability I try to block all input through shielding. When I do receive input from an individual person, I have met and spoken with them before hand usually. I very infrequently receive emotional input off individual people online without consciously trying to scan them.

In a crowded area however, I will receive random impressions that are quite annoying, overlayed with a feeling of being overwhelmed.

[SoulSplat]

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Posted By: Garenzo
On: March 13, 2008, 03:33:42 PM

Back to the original topic, "Do you know the person before feeling their emotions"... my answer = no, actually, hardly ever.

I can actually ***SOMETIMES*** tell what somebody is feeling by their (for example) text in an Instant Messaging conversation, even if the only word they say is "Hello", I can tell if they're happy, excited, angry, or sad......... that deals more with psychometry though.

But also, another thing:  I can actually take on the emotions of someone else, just by being near them.  I know this for a fact due to SEVERAL, MANY MANY MANY experiences and experiments.  It really sucks when I take on the emotions of a, what's called "emo" person... I start to feel depressed and other shit like that, but I realize that's not me, and I clean off my aura of their emotions right away.

[SoulSplat]

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Posted By: Hefaistos
On: July 02, 2008, 03:29:09 AM

I'd like to add something too:
I don't need to know the person beforehand, but I can't control it yet, mostly because I'm fifteen years old, and just starting to learn the basics, so I'm limited by distance, unless I know someone really well, in that case I'm able to read them at a distance. I feel feelings of others nearly like my own, but they're somehow a little strange, foreign would be the right term.

[holyk]

I am not an empath. Not most of the time. However, there have been a few times I have sensed a person's state (at least that I'm aware of, and recently): the two clearest instances were for people I didn't know, or barely knew (friend of a friend; I'd been introduced once and talked for a few seconds). One time it was when someone had the crap beat out of him by a very close and dear friend of mine, and the other was someone's not-quite near death experience (fully recovered and such, but it could have been potentially bad). There are a few other times I've felt stuff, but without any indication as to who it was, I can't be sure if it was real or just my body acting up. So no, I don't always know the person before hand, but there's usually 1-2 degrees of separation.

[Removed]

Well I simply choose not to. It is kind of like selective hearing. My life was very chaotic for a time so I guess I am just used to it. There is a duality of emotion. Both one and the other exist when they are both one and each other. Like a marriage between two people, both facing each other, the same yet different, valued by separation and joined by trust. If one does not exist then it does not exist. That is how I see it.
If they reach out to me then I guess I just simply ignore it. This was not easy to do and it is hard for me to control my dreams because I am completely void of astral sight and simply put false imagery to emotion automatically. Sense of time gets distorted and things don't really happen in a proper order so if I want to figure out what I was seeing then I have to write it all down... so in time I became better and better at ignoring it rather than listening.
To actually feel these things when I am conscious then I have to reach out and connect with them. Like the horned viper waiting for it's prey to take a bite, the venom must creep inside like a distant disaster. I think it goes without saying that I find this to be a weapon to be used with extreme caution. People can take my emotion without me even really giving it to them if I am careless and leave myself unguarded. Like I said, it is a duality, both one and the other. We are all One and Many.

I think I'll stop there...


Reading this post back to myself, I can see how it all might seem a little confusing. 

[The Sentinel]

I usually do my best to tune mine out when I'm in large groups of people, otherwise it just becomes far too much to handle. The short answer to the original question, however, is no. I have 'read' people that I have met on the computer ten minutes ago, so really it's just an innate sense of knowing that something is right (or wrong) with another person. Proximity matters a great deal, however. If someone's close to me I know most everything going on with them (if I take time to look) but if they're just a name on a computer screen I can only usually get a vague sense of whether or not they're "okay" or not. This sensitivity increases dramatically with people you are close to or intimate with. Still (after a year) I feel my ex-fiancee's emotions keenly when I am close to him and I am unable to just shut it off.

As Talus said, there's a great deal of danger for empaths mostly in the form of unconscious psychic or emotional "vampires" (I use the term loosely) that will latch onto us and drain us of our energies and our own emotions. I do not mean to say that all psychic vampires do this sort of thing so please don't be offended. Those that cannot control their abilities (or even people that are just overly needy in general) will latch on and do a great deal of damage to a creature as sensitive as an empath. We are unfortunately fragile creatures.

There are also a great many inherent dangers for the empath that is not properly aware of their abilities. I have seen many end up taking a great deal of psychoactive medications to try and get rid of the phantom feelings because they don't understand them and are terrified by them. Naturally, I feel a great deal of sorrow and pity for these poor creatures. However, in order to survive as an empath (particularly the sensitive ones) you need to be able to shut down and back away.

[de libre]

Yes, practically anywhere and everywhere. How do I know? Because it's been said at least once a day, not only that but I don't just give o you seem to be sad. No, I am able to narrow down the emotion to "O, your having sex problems with such and such because of this and that." Yes, it can feel invasive, and sometimes I don't like saying it, but it's just a part of life like breathing can't always be aware of it every second. Though knowing someone 'beforehand' can cause issues such as labeling, hatred or over rewarding someone when not really true.  It can also cause you to not make personal relationships with said person because you've already found the faults in them. Sometimes we stay away from others because of the faults we dislike in them, are the faults we utterly dislike in ourselves.


I am going to have to disagree with the person above me stating that any 'sensitive' empath has to either block or shut down. I'm one of those individuals and that is one of the things I advise NOT to do. In the real world you can't just say, hey I am not going to work with my employee Bob because I don't like the way he looks at me, no you have to suck it up and work with Bob anyways. This will teach you to be more tolerant and learn how to critically analyze people in general. This will make you better at knowing how to deal with problems when you are stuck, instead of skipping over it. When you do just only block you set yourself up for not having as many opportunities, depression, anxiety, usually both and just not having solid connections with others in general. This is a very bad way to go about things. If I was to block out everyone from empathic things I felt, I might as well be in a coma. I've noticed through reading some of the responses on the forums that almost all jump to SHIELD! Which, is good to know, but isn't the end all be all answer. Some of you are so focused on knowing how to shield amazingly, that you forget to just listen to other peoples problems or note how to take them.

Best advice I can give is "Observe and listen"

[Azoth]

Hmmm.  Empathic ability is a little trendy at the moment.  There are very few developed empaths.  Many people exploit the vague criterion set forth by leaders of the empathic community to explain away their faults rather than face the truth, which is mental health issues. 
Most people have different degrees of empathy, which is normal, but the energy worker reference of empath is much different.  Those with this ability are given an enhanced perspective that enables them to "read" people with very little information, if any, indifferent to location or distance.

[Aella]

Transfered From Suscitatio Forum
Posted By: Merticus
On: February 08, 2008, 08:20:44 PM

When having an empathic impression do you usually tend to have known the person for short or long periods of time prior?

Do you ever have empathic impressions over the phone, computer, etc. without first meeting the person?

If yes, how do you know these "impressions" are true empathy and not psychological?  How do you distinguish?

Both. People I have known for a long time I get almost ridiculous feelings from. My best friend lives several states away and sometimes I'll text her and say something like, "You're depressed and you have a headache. Please take some tylenol and watch a chick flick." She always texts me back with "How did you know?" And I tell her, "Because I can feel it. XD" However, she and I have a psychic connection and I rarely get that specific with other people. With people I've just met I more or less get a general feeling, and I can pick up on their emotions, as well as sometimes tell if they are lying by reading the tension in their bodies. The more I know someone the more attuned I become to their emotions, and the more I pick up.

I do have empathetic impressions over the phone, but only after I have met the person. It's like I have to get a 'taste' of them, and then I'm good.

It took me a long time to establish whether or not I was experiencing empathetic impressions or whether it was something psychological, but I suppose the best way to explain it is to say that the feelings I get feel 'foreign' or almost synthetic. I also get a particular feeling of whichever person I am picking them up from, sometimes I can smell them , if that makes any sense. Also, there are just a few coincidences that can't be ignored, really. Like me getting a bad knee whenever I visit my friend with arthritis, and so on etc. Some people think I'm full of crap, haha, but whatever, it still creeps them out when I can tell they're lying.