looking for advice on developing my empathic abilities. I asked this question before but...?

Yes I have been told that I am empathetic.

Here's how to develop your abilities.

Read books on body language the way people move and stand, sit or even lay, will tell you a lot about what they are thinking or how the feel.

For instance when a man talks to a woman if she pulls her fingers through her hair then she is flirting. If she crosses her legs at the knees when standing she is posing, trying to look sexy.

Or....

If you are having a discussion with a coworker and they have their arms folded on their chest then they don't care about you or what you are saying. If their eyes dart constantly they are either lying or want to get away from you.

The eyes do a great deal to betray what a person is saying. You can tell how sincere a person is by looking closely at their face and particularly their eyes.

I doubt that anyone can learn how to be a mind reader but with a little knowledge and practice you can tell quite a bit about what goes on inside a persons mind without them being aware of it.

There are a lot of books that have to do with reading people, so even if you can't read their thoughts you can get a good idea about them anyway.

];-)

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Empathic/psychic abilities are important to develop if you have shown any aptitude in them, so I'm unsure why people have had a go at you, after all why would 'God' give you such a gift then forbid you to use or develop it?

A good book I found on it is 'You Are Psychic' by Pete A Sanders. You can get it through Amazon and it isn't too expensive from memory. If you wish to explore other mystical areas of life I might suggest a couple of other books: Beyond The Occult by Colin Wilson and The Grimoire For The Apprentice Wizard by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart.

Hope you get more help this time round, and less judgment (funny how people forget "judge not lest ye be judged, for by the same yardstick one measures another so shall ye be measured" when they think they're right).

Hello aniime_dragon,

Sorry you had to put up with some rudeness. Those that don't have the quality of empathy are incapable of understanding much about it nor how it affects those who were given such a gift of mixed blessings as empathy.

Make no mistake, it is a mixed blessing. If you're an empath, you can walk into a room and usually tell how people are feeling. Your eyes are drawn to the one in the most pain - whether it's mental, emotional, spiritual, or physical pain. You can sense when people are telling you an untruth. You can feel the pain almost like palpable waves of sensation. You get to experience some of the joys in life as well, thank goodess, but those tend to be much rarer.

It is difficult to feel what other people have going on inside them without wanting to help. Empaths often tend to be compassionate people for that very reason.

The key to any talent is exercising it. Perhaps you might take up Touch Therapy or, better still, Reiki and let your empathy become stronger and more effective in helping heal the ones in pain. You will find that people will want to unburden themselves... and that's a good thing. But it will be necessary to learn how to protect yourself from taking on their burdens in addition to your own. You cannot help someone out of a hole if you're down in the hole with them.

If you'd prefer a more modern path, then I suggest that you try the profession of psychologist or counselor on for size. You probably won't develop your empathy quite as quickly, but you definitely will have an advantage in counseling your clients.

It's not an easy path, but it is a very, very rich and fulfilling one.

Hope this is an insight you can use.

Warmly,

Tara

I came across your question because it was starred by one of my contacts. And I am confused, so much so that I had to re-check the actual definition of the word empathy. The reason is that it seems that some people have a completely different grasp of what the concept of empahty is all about. It seems that I was more or less correct in what I believed the meaning to be.

Quote :

Main Entry: em·pa·thy

Pronunciation: 'em-p&-thE

Function: noun

Etymology: Greek empatheia, literally, passion, from empathEs emotional, from em- + pathos feelings, emotion -- more at PATHOS

1 : the imaginative projection of a subjective state into an object so that the object appears to be infused with it

2 : the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner; also : the capacity for this

Unquote

So, one person told you that no-one has empathy, no-one !

If this were true then this planet would be the closest to how I could imagine 'Hell' might be, if such a place existed, which it doesn't.

There is a supposed medical condition called a 'Narcissistic personality disorder', in which people are apparently unable to empathise with other's feelings. So how, in anyone's definition, could empathy not exist ? How would we even have a word, whose etymology is over 3,000 years old, in ancient Greek ?

It seems that some people now connect empathy with 'psychic' abilities. The two may have similarities, may even be extensions of each other, but let's get one thing staight, empathy is a well-established fact of human existance, it may be one of the very defining characteristics of the 'human condition', possibly even THE defining characteristic.

So, many have given you some excellent tips above, all I can do is to re-inforce and add my support to your quest.

I have found that every single person on this planet has a story to tell, but that few of us have the time or inclination to listen. I work in a situation where thousands of people come into my sphere of awareness every year, and the overwhelming feeling I perceive is loneliness, I am literall stunned sometimes by how many of us are living the lives of "quiet desperation" as described by Henry David Thoreau.

I genuinely 'feel' this and it tears me apart sometimes.

So, let yourself become more open to the story that others want to tell, give yourself 'time' to listen, and offer the means to people in whatever way seems appropriate, without putting yourself at risk, and see what happens. I think you will be amazed.

With regard to the 'psychic' extension to the possibilities of empathetic abilities I can assure that they exist, to an unlimited degree, and that you can, indeed, develop them if you so choose. I say this based on experiential evidence that I have gathered over many, many years. I use these abilities on an almost daily basis, mostly in the hope of helping others.

I hope that, together with all of the kind suggestions of others, this helps you too. Good luck, and success with all your aims in this life, whatever they may be.

Oh, and one last word, a very high percentage of the world's spiritual people believe, as I do, that compassion is one of the greatest human virtues, some would even say that this is one of the primary ways to a state of bliss. If a 'Christian', or any other self-professed 'religious' person, tells you otherwise then they clearly haven't read their own book of rules ! ;-)

Empathy is the very heart and soul of compassion.

I am an empath. I can only say, that your question really moved me, and wonder how you came to ask this question because, untill now, I thought that either you were an empath, or you weren't. The reason for this is because of the absolute absence of a lingistic means of conveying what is experienced while swept up in an empathic ordeal. So I am courious as to how one would arrive at the conclusion they would like to be more empathic.

Webster's Dictionary gives this definition:

"Identification with, or, vicarious experienceing of the feelings or thoughts of another."

In my case, it seems that when I have these random experinences, I am being overwhelmed to the point of be paralyzed by what has come over me. It is something unexplainable, for the most part, but I compare it to be, literally being, "in someone elses shoes." it's like you are them kind of, so My advice would be to place yourself in someone elses shoes, and first see if you identify with what they are going through. ( this isn't the same thing as what you think they are going through, it is what they are going through. That is thing that I feel when it happens, what they are living at that moment.)

That is about all I got , but I would like to add that, for reasons I don't know, I have this h appen to me when there is an astonishing amount of pain, physically, or, from sorrow, grief, betrayl. It's like the person, or any living creature for that matter, is experiencing more than they can handle by itself and needs me to share it with/for them. If that is any help. It is so hurtful to myself to feels this and yet, I feel sort of blessed by it too. It boils down to, my experiencing, in one lifetime at least, 1000 other lives, which is perplexing to wonder the reason for it. However, you are the one asking this question. www.crystallink.com

Find a teacher who can give you a sounding block. Empathy is like any other skill, it takes time and practice. Most empaths have always felt what others feel, the hard part for an empath is blocking out others emotions so it doesn't detract from what they need to do.

The first thing you need to do is build some shields around yourself, give yourself permission to be seperate from the emotions around you and to live with your OWN emotions, not others. Talk to people who are empathic, that includes doctors, priests, and people who help others, most empaths select jobs where they can use their abilities to help.

I can't answer your question but I know you are getting some help from others. As far as Eri using the words "no one ever" that's a big statement. I mean she can't know everyone or everything so...ignore her. she gives a lot of angry answers. Just continue your search. It's difficult when people attack you for no reason. You will find what you are looking for. The greatest minds are always the ones with the most questions and could admit that they didn't have the answers.....like C.S Lewis.

first learn to be an observer of all things, sit back and watch people and things, learn them. read some psychology and philosophy books all these things will help you to read and understand people better and eventually you may start to see things in a new light be able to tell more from a short conversation with a person and possibly you may find you have some empathic abilities, at worst you'll amaze people at how well you can grasp what they are saying and how they feel

LSD does wonders for this I've heard. Aside from that, I've seen multiple tests of people who said they could do the same thing and not one of them has ever been able to correctly identify people based on their auras. The ones tested were some of the more famous empathic-claiming people too.

There is an awesome book called You Are Psychic by Pete Sanders that is a veritable handbook on how to develop your extra senses. Here's a link, but I think I first found it in my local library:

http://www.amazon.com/You-Are-Psychic-Free-Method/...

Peace!