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Empathy: What it is, what it is not, and what to do about it

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Empathy: What it is, what it is not, and what to do about it on Sun May 21, 2006 12:59 am

Jael

Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Posts: 55

The area of empathy seems to have some misunderstandings running rampant here. Hopefully this post will help clarify psionic empathy and what you can do about it if it is bothering you.

First, I would like to define terms. Empathy is has two definitions according to dictionary.com.

Please note that even though these are defining non-psionic empathy, in (1) it is identification with an outsider, and in (2) it is not feeling specifically, but rather attribution of your feelings onto someone or something else.

In the articles section of PsiPog, the subtitle for the empathy articles is "Sensing the emotions of others, and dealing with those emotions." Note that this refers to emotions coming from outside of yourself.

In addition, I would like to quote from Rainsong/RainTurtle's seminar on empathy (art-outline-to-shielding.html136):

Rainsong/RainTurtle wrote:

[20:40] <.RainTurtle> There are two basic meanings for the word "empathy", and several variants within each.
[20:41] <.RainTurtle> The first is a psychological phenomenon, reacting to the expressed or assumed situation of another person, "feeling for them",....very like "sympathy" in rough terms
[20:41] <.RainTurtle> Not being a Psychologist, I am not going to be lecturing on Psychological Empathy, tonight....
[20:43] <.RainTurtle> Instead, we come to the second meaning: "the telepathic perception of another person's emotions". Depending on the variant of the definition which you happen to favour, this may also extend to influencing the emotions of other people, in addition to sensing same

The particular section of the forum and indeed the articles in the article section address the psionic empathy RainTurtle mentions in her second definition. To reiterate, psychological empathy is not the type of empathy intended to be under discussion in this area of the forum.

Some things that empathy is NOT:

Here are some ideas about what to do when you experience psionic empathy or think you might be experiencing psionic empathy.

Ground and center

I personally like Rainsong/RainTurtle's description of grounding and centering in her article 'Normal' Uses for Unusual Skills found in the articles site at art-normal-uses.html. She is describing grounding before taking an exam, but points out that grounding is useful in other situations as well.

Rainsong/RainTurtle wrote:

Put your feet flat on the floor, and your hands flat on the desk or chair. Close your eyes. Take a nice deep breath. Now focus on the excess energy and the excess emotion, and send them down your arms and out through the palms of your hands. It may simplify matters to visualize the energy and emotion being sent as being water or sand flowing along pipes. In any case, don't force it out; just let it flow nice and easily. The entire procedure takes less than a minute and may be repeated as needed.

After grounding and centering, it is often immensely easier to tell if you are receiving telepathic input in the form of empathy or if you are actually the one with the feelings in question. As an example, on the anniversary of my sister-in-law's death, I started feeling a mix of strong emotions halfway through the day. After grounding/centering, I realised not only what day it was, but that my brother was just starting his day (we live several time zones apart). In this example, I was both feeling my own feelings as well as his. I adjusted my shield to send comfort to my brother while blocking his feelings from me. While not a great day, it was manageable. Had I had to deal with both my emotions and his, I'm not sure how well it would have gone.

Shield

A shield is simply something that blocks incoming signals. The best shield for you to use is the one that works. What works for one person might be useless to someone else. Read what you can about shielding, create shields, and have people scan them and help you test them. Not only does it give you feedback, it's good practice for all parties involved. The articles section is a good place to start for learning more about shields: cat-shields.html

When testing your shields, don't describe your shield to the person scanning before hand. The feedback you can rely on is the feedback that doesn't have 'frontloaded' information. The information provided to you can verify that your shield is working properly, as well as give you feedback about what other people might experience when scanning your shield. For example, if you create a hedge shield and they can't find you, you might have made it correctly. However, you might also have chosen a partner that has difficulty finding people. To check this, ask them to rescan for you, after taking down the shield. Ideally, you wouldn't mention to them that you did so. If they rescan and find you, you have confirmed that your hedge shield works. Another fun thing to do is put a construct somewhere on your shield/field. That is an additional boost for both you and the scanner when those are verified. "This is odd... I think I've found you, but it seems like you have a purple dinosaur on your shoulder."

Summary

Grounding, centering, and shielding are the most useful things you can do to help regain control of incoming signals. Occasionally, empathy will result in confused feelings inside yourself. For example, you might feel upset at the store for an 'unexplained' reason, only to discover a couple arguing close by (depending on the argument and your sensitivity, they could be outside the store). Even after putting up a shield, the chemicals released in the brain when _you_ are upset are still floating around in your body. The body doesn't differentiate between your emotions and someone else's. Grounding and centering again can be helpful, but you might need to use some of your personal tricks to deal with any leftover feelings of anger before you feel 'yourself' again.

Remember: If you are personally going through a hard time, realise this and be honest with yourself. Assuming you are an empath, you are still empathetic during these times, but recognising when they are 'your' feelings as opposed to 'someone else's' feelings is harder during rough sections of life. During these times, I attempt to be even more diligent with shielding. Why make things harder on myself by being lazy? This increases the likelihood that the feelings I am experiencing are mine and need to be addressed. Therefore, I assume that the feelings are mine and deal with them (or attempt to deal with them) appropriately.

I hope this information is helpful in understanding what empathy is and what it is not, as well as how to deal with it.

Take care,

Jael

Posted on Tue May 23, 2006 8:33 pm

Yamamaya

Joined: 18 Jan 2006
Posts: 292

well done.

Posted on Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:30 pm

pyroman098

Joined: 13 Jan 2006
Posts: 916

way too long to read, there should be a summary at the end...

strong message follows on Tue Jun 13, 2006 8:50 pm

Rainsong

Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Posts: 67

Regarding Jael's post:
This is a forum post, not a doctoral thesis. It is not long enough to require a summary. However, Jael knows her stuff, and you would do well to take her seriously.

Regarding Pyroman's post:
It is "way too" illiterate. If you're going to criticize the way someone else writes, you might at least use proper spelling and capitalization.

Posted on Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:42 pm

LOTRfool

Joined: 13 Jan 2006
Posts: 518

Nice job! This should definetly help the "empathic overload PLZ HELP!!!" messages I've been seeing, along with others. Thanks Wink

huh on Tue Jun 20, 2006 10:36 pm

sticky_12

Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 5

so a shield is just a barrior u just make up. how do i lower my shield?????

Re: huh on Tue Jun 20, 2006 11:33 pm

Elliptic

Joined: 19 Jan 2006
Posts: 199

sticky_12 wrote:

so a shield is just a barrior u just make up. how do i lower my shield?????

art-psionic-shielding.html

The Article wrote:

Dispelling the Shield is a simple matter. The method I use most often is to visualize the shell dissolving into what look like 'pixels' which gently collapse to the ground and are absorbed back into the Earth, while intending to release the Shield. This is often called 'dropping' one's Shields. Don't take the 'drop' part too literally, however. Letting a Shield collapse too quickly or too violently can result in a truly monstrous headache, and occasionally knock you senseless. Visualize it rolling up like an automatic garage door, or rising open, or dissolving into nothing, or fading out...whatever you like. Just be sure the process is nice and gentle. As in the casting of the shell, a spoken component is optional. Likewise, you can incorporate physical gestures, if you want to.

Read.

psi on Wed Jun 21, 2006 2:36 am

sticky_12

Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 5

thanks now all i got to do is practice

Posted on Tue Aug 08, 2006 10:37 am

abuelos84

Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Posts: 76

pyroman098 wrote:

way too long to read, there should be a summary at the end...

how old are you? 6? can't you read a couple of pages? geez!

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va con onda loco...

Posted on Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:17 pm

sticky_12

Joined: 20 Jun 2006
Posts: 5

hey does anyone now. like tha maxium of emphasy skills. like when you master emphasy. what all can you do? if anyone knows tha answer please tell me

Posted on Thu Dec 07, 2006 11:53 am

apocryphal_theses

Joined: 24 Jan 2006
Posts: 79

Sorry, can you rephrase that? Do you mean what's the maximum number of skills one can learn? Or are there branches off of empathy? Try be clearer in future, makes life easier; and everyone could do with that. Smile

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