Is this empathy, or something else?

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Yeah, it's incredibly hard to find a proper balance with the social stuff! Really you are whatever you make of yourself and I find it's extremely important who you have around you at any given time as it will inevitably affect you for better or for worse.


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Vipera aspis atra
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On the discussion of forms of intelligence vs. psychic ability at play, these two intertwine a lot. One can support or empower the other.

For instance, I am usually very good at reading and interpreting persons, situations, etc. What I mean by that goes both ways you may be thinking, instinctively as well as logically. Instinct borders on an expression of intuition. Here is how the dominoes fall when it comes to the interrelation of these:
If I simply see you walking down the street or read something you say, I can easily pick up a lot of little cues that will be telling of what you've kept hidden or do not even notice about yourself. That involves logic; when this deduction about the person happens rapidly, strongly, and without conscious attention to the details, the heightened rate of 'absorption' makes for instinct. When that instinct goes a step beyond the basic, it becomes intuitive.
Now, when 'phantom phenomena' comes into the mix, then it becomes a full psychic/supernatural experience: visions, a voice of a spirit or deity relaying things, kinesis, what we can generally call a loss of conscious control and uprising of unconscious control.

Intuition is often spoken about in the context of being 'extrasensory' to the point where people who have underdeveloped intuition may believe it is possible to lack it entirely, and those with strongly developed intuition who understand they are accessing it may seem otherworldly.
However it is part of everyone --for some it is very subtle and they don't even know they are using it. Even people who are skeptical and have absolutely no firm conscious belief in psychic or paranormal abilities, will often state they get 'feelings' about people, places or things.

When it comes to empathy, in my mind there is no mistaking it. It isn't something I consider fundamentally supernatural, but there is nothing barring it from becoming involved supernaturally much like how intuition can blur these lines. There are also different empath strengths (not sure if that has come up yet in this thread), where the internalization of emotion can be more inclined to a particular stimuli (like one who empathizes more with fictional stories).
As an empathic person myself, I know it is active because I completely identify with/am enmeshed in the thing I am feeling. Take that up a notch in this case because I also happen to be clairsentient, so for example --I could experience the sensation of a mother giving birth (even though unfamiliar to me in this lifetime) along with her joy or sorrow, and may even lose track of the fact that I personally did not give birth, because it is similar to becoming totally possessed by this other person's reality. You can find yourself becoming motivated and redirected by 'their' feelings, their experience, it becomes entirely personal to you. From the outside looking in, it could seem like a hallucinogenic trip or identity crisis of some sort, lol.

And here is what I am getting at, there's a scale to being empathic or exercising intuition (comparatively). If modest and scattered it may be negligible to note, if it is a steady part of your personality then you are harnessing a type of intelligence, and if it is accessed to extremes it transcends this to become more of what we consider 'paranormal' given all nuances of these concepts are able to be drawn out.

On the matter of people gravitating to you, this may or may not relate to empathic ability. Foremost it is about their sensitivities mingling with your own. On an unconscious level if you are open, and they are needing, it forms a matching dynamic. The more people gravitate to you, the more it 'builds' that position within you and acts like a powerful beacon to repetition of the dynamic, even when you are not being 'open' to it then it will still happen by that point.
This can present itself many ways in our lives, depending on what the dynamic is. Clues of the dynamic we facilitate are sometimes present in body language (friendly disposition could be a trait, as has already been mentioned), but it is important to know the subtleties we think aren't expressed via body language or our immediate personality become 'louder' because of the magnetic residue I suggested above having been built in over years -or lifetimes- of experience with the dynamic.
An example of a difficult dynamic: an individual who continuously attracts false friends or abusive relationships.
An example of a great dynamic: an individual who continuously, as if by pure luck, attracts opportunities for wealth.
The origin of the dynamic can be all it takes to bring that repetition into your life if it has had a powerful enough impact on you or your aura.

This has gone off into a tangent, but all of the above is helpful to be aware of if you're trying to figure out the reason behind themes in your life or about your experience. I can't tell you if you're empathic, but I would say that it is easy to know about yourself because you will have that defining factor I mentioned earlier where you completely identify with the emotions of others as if they are your own and what happened to them happened to you. If you don't have that element then you're not an empath, if you do then you are on the empathy spectrum.


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InfernalNachos
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Vipera aspis atra wrote:On the discussion of forms of intelligence vs. psychic ability at play, these two intertwine a lot. One can support or empower the other.

For instance, I am usually very good at reading and interpreting persons, situations, etc. What I mean by that goes both ways you may be thinking, instinctively as well as logically. Instinct borders on an expression of intuition. Here is how the dominoes fall when it comes to the interrelation of these:
If I simply see you walking down the street or read something you say, I can easily pick up a lot of little cues that will be telling of what you've kept hidden or do not even notice about yourself. That involves logic; when this deduction about the person happens rapidly, strongly, and without conscious attention to the details, the heightened rate of 'absorption' makes for instinct. When that instinct goes a step beyond the basic, it becomes intuitive.
Now, when 'phantom phenomena' comes into the mix, then it becomes a full psychic/supernatural experience: visions, a voice of a spirit or deity relaying things, kinesis, what we can generally call a loss of conscious control and uprising of unconscious control.

Intuition is often spoken about in the context of being 'extrasensory' to the point where people who have underdeveloped intuition may believe it is possible to lack it entirely, and those with strongly developed intuition who understand they are accessing it may seem otherworldly.
However it is part of everyone --for some it is very subtle and they don't even know they are using it. Even people who are skeptical and have absolutely no firm conscious belief in psychic or paranormal abilities, will often state they get 'feelings' about people, places or things.

When it comes to empathy, in my mind there is no mistaking it. It isn't something I consider fundamentally supernatural, but there is nothing barring it from becoming involved supernaturally much like how intuition can blur these lines. There are also different empath strengths (not sure if that has come up yet in this thread), where the internalization of emotion can be more inclined to a particular stimuli (like one who empathizes more with fictional stories).
As an empathic person myself, I know it is active because I completely identify with/am enmeshed in the thing I am feeling. Take that up a notch in this case because I also happen to be clairsentient, so for example --I could experience the sensation of a mother giving birth (even though unfamiliar to me in this lifetime) along with her joy or sorrow, and may even lose track of the fact that I personally did not give birth, because it is similar to becoming totally possessed by this other person's reality. You can find yourself becoming motivated and redirected by 'their' feelings, their experience, it becomes entirely personal to you. From the outside looking in, it could seem like a hallucinogenic trip or identity crisis of some sort, lol.

And here is what I am getting at, there's a scale to being empathic or exercising intuition (comparatively). If modest and scattered it may be negligible to note, if it is a steady part of your personality then you are harnessing a type of intelligence, and if it is accessed to extremes it transcends this to become more of what we consider 'paranormal' given all nuances of these concepts are able to be drawn out.

On the matter of people gravitating to you, this may or may not relate to empathic ability. Foremost it is about their sensitivities mingling with your own. On an unconscious level if you are open, and they are needing, it forms a matching dynamic. The more people gravitate to you, the more it 'builds' that position within you and acts like a powerful beacon to repetition of the dynamic, even when you are not being 'open' to it then it will still happen by that point.
This can present itself many ways in our lives, depending on what the dynamic is. Clues of the dynamic we facilitate are sometimes present in body language (friendly disposition could be a trait, as has already been mentioned), but it is important to know the subtleties we think aren't expressed via body language or our immediate personality become 'louder' because of the magnetic residue I suggested above having been built in over years -or lifetimes- of experience with the dynamic.
An example of a difficult dynamic: an individual who continuously attracts false friends or abusive relationships.
An example of a great dynamic: an individual who continuously, as if by pure luck, attracts opportunities for wealth.
The origin of the dynamic can be all it takes to bring that repetition into your life if it has had a powerful enough impact on you or your aura.

This has gone off into a tangent, but all of the above is helpful to be aware of if you're trying to figure out the reason behind themes in your life or about your experience. I can't tell you if you're empathic, but I would say that it is easy to know about yourself because you will have that defining factor I mentioned earlier where you completely identify with the emotions of others as if they are your own and what happened to them happened to you. If you don't have that element then you're not an empath, if you do then you are on the empathy spectrum.
Yeah, this was brilliant and eloquently written, but...

Although I agree with you on a whole, I feel some... not misgivings, but more like... lighthearted and good natured disagreement?

First, a person who identifies with fictional characters displays empathy. In the psychological sense. This person is not an empath. This person displays a level of emotional intelligence that is based in the fact that they are able to see themselves in another persons shows. An empath feels another's emotions, as in the labor example.

Second, intuition is something that borders on, or relates to, precog. In my tiny brain, anyway.

And lastly, I still cant bring myself to see clairsentience as being a completely different animal than being an empath. I feel that the whole world will argue with me in this, and I accept that, fully. But i respectfully, and i mean this with the utmost respect, because i hold both you, Vipera, and Muse, in very high regards... but clairsentience and claircog just seem to be the more advanced or practiced states of being an empath.

I did have to read your post twice... it REALLY hit home. And though I know I'm arguing to an extent, I want to stress that I dont think you are wrong at all, on any point. It may be the fact that I am hung up in antiquated terms, or stuck in the past, if you will. But i stand by what i say, and want you to know that i have nothing but respect for you and a person, and a healthy admiration of what you've accomplished.


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Ferro
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Thank you, Vipera, that's the insight I needed. I actually can feel other's emotions to the point, where I can't distinguish them from my own. When I'm not careful enough to intentionally keep my distance, that is.
I often keep "looking through other's eyes", or rather say I can see from their point of view, because I'm able to somehow know their motivation and feelings, as if I was for a moment at their place. This applies to my life's events, but also to historic events (And trust me, a mere thought about trench warfare, concentration camps, or other dark times of history can make me almost physically sick. Despair is by far the worst emotion I know of)

As for the other things, I do actually relate to fictional characters almost as if they were alive. (And given the fact, that there exist "fictional characters bindings", they actually may be alive to some extent...)

And to your example of childbirth- This is kinda weird. Because I can somehow relate to the actual mother who is delivering (almost to feeling the actual pain), but I can also relate to feelings of someone, who never gave birth him/herself, but is feeling it vicariously...
(I know this is getting more and more confusing, so I'll rather stop writing now :D )


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Vipera aspis atra
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InfernalNachos wrote: First, a person who identifies with fictional characters displays empathy. In the psychological sense. This person is not an empath. This person displays a level of emotional intelligence that is based in the fact that they are able to see themselves in another persons shows. An empath feels another's emotions, as in the labor example.
I think you might've misinterpreted, but allow me to clarify. You can be empathic about what a fictional character is going through as you watch a movie or read a book. To an empath who is capable of being provoked that way, there is virtually no difference between that and if they were empathically reacting to a live 'real' person they'd interacted with. It may not always occur, it is based on the type of investment that was made in the fiction piece and you may even pick up stranger things that aren't otherwise apparent in that case since you are connecting with the whole of what the writer, actor, artist was feeling as they created their result.
What I was saying in another point of my post is that emotional intelligence is a mid-tier 'level' of empathy. You can exhibit emotional intelligence about a fictional thing but there are people who can also exhibit empathy about it.
Second, intuition is something that borders on, or relates to, precog. In my tiny brain, anyway.
The particular comparison between those two in the way you phrased it wouldn't be accurate. I'm precognitive, and that particular ability is about sensing the future. Intuition does not only entail sensing the future, it could be sensing anything about anything. You could say precog is an intuitive gift, though. One of many intuitive gifts.
And lastly, I still cant bring myself to see clairsentience as being a completely different animal than being an empath. I feel that the whole world will argue with me in this, and I accept that, fully. But i respectfully, and i mean this with the utmost respect, because i hold both you, Vipera, and Muse, in very high regards... but clairsentience and claircog just seem to be the more advanced or practiced states of being an empath.
I wasn't saying clairsentience is completely different, they are both abilities that can be about psychic 'feeling'. But the titles denote different realms of ability --you can be an empath without being clairsentient. Because one without the other is possible, it is reasonable to be able to distinguish them in conversation, actually for the purpose of heightening how they can be connected.
If you are both, it has bled together and doesn't matter as much to distinguish (on a personal level anyway). I don't think getting hung up on terms is too important, I use the terms I use to try to make my point clearer. If you consider the clairs to be an advancement of empathy, I don't think it changes the point I was making.
Basically from what I can see we don't disagree on this. Cheers~


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You've had some wonderful responses so far so I don't feel the need to elaborate.
I will however share my empathic experience.
When I experience empathy, the persons emotions are no different from my own. If their heart is broken, so is mine. If they are crying and in pain, so am I. Exactly where and how they are.
I am not just "aware" of their feelings and sympathizing, I am feeling what they are feeling.
I find it takes emotional intelligence to be able to separate that it is THEIR stuff and not mine. Most of the time I have walls up and am able to block it out.
I prefer to respond and understand someones emotions and motives based on body language cues. This also comes naturally to me, and I find it far less confronting. I also find it very separate from empathy though the two can run in together is you don't have strong barriers.

As for people approaching you, I imagine it has something to do with your energy. Even the most oblivious of people respond to the energy of a person subconsciously, and if yours is open and gentle they are more likely to approach and feel safe with you, confiding in you.


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Ok. You got me on the intuition Vipera... didnt realize it til after I had put the phone away. That part was definitely unfinished. Kept me awake for a little last night.

Either way, it was a good thread.

And good luck, Ferro. Hope you get a better grasp or understanding or find the answers you're looking for


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Alright this is a lot and I'm not gonna lie, I just woke up and skipped over most of it. I also have a terrible memory due to trauma, so if I said this before please forgive me but...I feel it's necessary to mention that people tend to confuse Sympathy and Empathy far too much. To the point where they are even used in the same way...

Sympathy is when a person can relate to or understand an emotion, sometimes enough to feel it as their own due to their levels of compassion for the situation or individual. It also isn't a constant, it can be as variable as a person's emotional intelligence allows.

Empathy is when a person can simply feel others emotional states, often spot on, and usually without any instigating factor (someone approaching you, or sharing a life story first, etc). You can just look at someone and be hit with things.

This is a very important distinction, because otherwise, over half of the human population would be considered psychic. Which, as cool as that would be, I highly doubt it.

Whatever the case may be with ya Ferro, hope you're comfortable with the end conclusion.


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