Questions for the Empaths

a reply to: quercusrex

I don't like your attitude.

Thank you all for the replies and discussion. I appreciate you sharing your experiences.

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: quercusrex
a reply to: Snarl

That he shared that is a sign of great love and a feeling of safety with you. I am sure that he has fed off of you, but not in a bad way, or he would not have shared that.

You seem to be looking for or wanting a negative. Why?

I am not looking for a negative. In fact, I am expressing a positive. I wondered if empaths are able to absorb the pain from others and thus assist in relieving them. A sort of emotional healing.

This would help both parties as the empath would feel satisfaction in the healing and gain energy from it and the target would be eased of the anguish.

The same would be possible with joy, ecstasy, and love.

It would be parasitic but could still be positive for both.

a reply to: quercusrex

I am an empath. Which causes me to avoid crowds of people like the plague. People and all the palpable emotion rolling off of them can sometime overwhelm me so much - that I want to puke.

Being a psychic vampire is different. A whole different mechanism of intentionally causing negative actions, to make a person feel anxiety, fear... in which then the psychic vampire then feeds off the negative emotions. They do it for gratification. A bully is a psychic vampire. He derives pleasure from causing other people pain.

Now can an empath be a psychic vampire? Sure. Why not?

a reply to: quercusrex

I am not looking for a negative. In fact, I am expressing a positive. I wondered if empaths are able to absorb the pain from others and thus assist in relieving them. A sort of emotional healing.

This can be done accidentally by an empath. I think that what you are looking for would be more like a Reiki thing, or some sort of "deliberate" movement or displacement of energies.

a reply to: Ghostwalker416

Sometimes I feel like I'm the only one looking at the date, the stars and the posts. And if all that fails, read what the person said:

And yes, I just made an account to say this, lol long time lurker though none the less. Good day kind souls!

Welcome to ATS, registering wise! You've probably been here way longer than I have. Since this thread was enough to motivate you to finally join, it sounds like you have interesting thoughts or experiences.

Why not introduce yourself officially in the Intro section, so that others can meet you and appreciate your presence?

Nice to meet you!

CF

originally posted by: quercusrex

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: quercusrex
a reply to: Snarl

That he shared that is a sign of great love and a feeling of safety with you. I am sure that he has fed off of you, but not in a bad way, or he would not have shared that.

You seem to be looking for or wanting a negative. Why?

I am not looking for a negative. In fact, I am expressing a positive. I wondered if empaths are able to absorb the pain from others and thus assist in relieving them. A sort of emotional healing.

That's not what your OP says.

This might be an excellent place to post an experience I had that might be interesting to other empaths.

I don’t think that many empaths know that they are empaths. Yes, everyone has some degree of it, but I’m talking about when it is on the edge of being spooky. And the conditions one is subject to when they find out can also affect their own experience and attitude towards it.

Mine became apparent just after my mother committed suicide. Or it appeared that way, but I’ve come to believe that this was something that brought it out from more of a dormant stage. But the timing had me believing for some time that they were related.

During this time, I had befriended a colleague at the university. He was a math professor and I was typing and editing his text books. We would often have coffee and he was aware of some predictions that I had made, that were troubling to me, because I was unfamiliar with all of this. Having no reference for it, I thought that I might be causing these events.

The obvious empathy event happened when we were on a drive and I confided in him that I was afraid that I was losing the use of my right hand. He asked how long I had felt that and I told him that this had been going on for three days now. He immediately pulled the car over, at a quick hard stop, and looked at me with an OMG expression, and then said that what I was feeling was him, as he had lost feeling in his right hand three days ago, but was trying to fake it, pretending that it wasn’t happening, while he was waiting for a doctor's appointment and contemplating the repercussions of this. Even his wife didn't know about it.

That’s a very simple example but allow me to jump ahead to my point for the other empaths…

Years later, when I began to explore these things and was involved in a Metaphysics group, actually three of them, I got introduced to psychometry. I wrote about that in another thread but I don’t know how to do links. This experience brought out a bit of paranoia in me, as I didn’t realize just how much one could pick up on another just by being near them. Suddenly I was feeling everyone’s everything! I quit going out. I wouldn’t go to the store, hated going in an elevator with others, and the Mall was out of the question.

Now, I do like my coffee. And these lessons were late at night and I’m not a night person. During the break I truly wanted a cup of coffee, but the only place to get that cup was at the bar next door….yeah, right!….I’d try to get my husband to go get me a cup, but guilt would have me lurking just outside the door, while I wondered what it was that I was exposing him to, since he would not be in that bar if it weren’t for my request.

And then I had an odd thought: Energy is energy. There is no good or bad energy. This is our take on it; our interpretation and perhaps our projection of expectations.

This isn’t coming out right. I’m trying to split hairs here. Yes, you can read and pick up things by the energy in the room, but it is secondary to the Source of energy, if that makes sense. My point was that I was, at that moment, sick and tired of my own life being dictated by what ever “energy” was in the place before I got there, and so I decided that I was not going to be bothered anymore by it.

It was in this respect that I say that energy is energy, and so I decided to just use it to my advantage. I entered the bar, took a deep breath, walked up and ordered my coffee as if I were the new Sheriff in town, and walked out triumphly.

So now I can go just about anyplace I so choose, and do so with confidence. But there are still some people that I find myself being completely drained around. I still feel this is more of an introvert vs extrovert thing, but maybe it’s a mixture of that and empath. Anyway, I hope this helps someone.

a reply to: quercusrex

That is nearly poetic.

a reply to: Annee

I apologize for not making myself clearer.

I am learning more from this discussion and see that my original questions were based on thinking that empaths are all emotional feeders whether they realize it or not. I proposed that some are skilled enough to know and use this ability for mutual benefit.


ETA: Or detriment, unfortunately. I agree with the "bully" comment above.

originally posted by: [post=20623918]CirqueDeTruth

the psychic vampire then feeds off the negative emotions

Could a psychic vampire not also feed off of positive emotions (joy, love, ecstasy) and try to generated them or amplify them in the other for their mutual satisfaction?

a reply to: pirhanna

No, its more like "normal" folks are constantly projecting their emotions at everyone else, and have no idea how to keep it to themselves.

It's more likely that this is the case for many who consider themselves to be empathetic.
However there is some evidence to support that for those whom are socially anxious,they may have increased empathy.

Social cognition in Social Anxiety

And then you have mirror neurons.

The mind's mirror

a reply to: Annee

Annee, I did not mean the "eat their pain" comment in a negative way. I meant it as devouring their pain to take it from them, to release them from it.

Using the persons negative energy to provide for the taker but in return relieving the giver.

You mentioned "eating pain"....yeah. I absorb a lot a negative and painful energy from people and am usually surrounded by hard and sad stories. As a result I need long periods to myself to diffuse the negativity. If I didn't, I'd get overwhelmed and explode with a very unsettling discharge, and no one needs to be around me when I have those moments. I used to go camping out in the middle of nowhere to let such things go, but had to adapt to changes in environment and personal circumstance.

It takes some getting used to, one needs to learn to wax and wane and not become prey to predatory personalities.

a reply to: GENERAL EYES

Do you feel that the ones you took in the negative energy from were left in a better state afterwards?

a reply to: NateTheAnimator

Interesting articles. Thank you.

a reply to: quercusrex

I hope so.
There is usually a follow up with a hug afterwards with some closer friends.

Some people in the past have become overly dependent or have far too many and constantly severe issues and I've had to cut ties with them because they won't respect my personal boundaries and limitations, and expect me to do all the work for them. I would classify them in the energy vampire category because they never....never...never gave back. When they couldn't get what they wanted/needed from me, they turned back to destructive drug use, which complicated the cycle immensely.

Wow, never thought of myself as an empath, but this thread made me think!
I always thought I just had a gift for feeling a "vibe". Later I realised my "perception " was correct more often than not. Then I came to the conclusion that I always came to regret decisions made while ignoring my "gut feeling", but never when yielding to it, regardless of logic (I'm a left brainer, so it's kinda difficult to ignore logic, or rather to go against obvious logic).
I'm actually an extrovert, but appears to be an entrovert because of the fact that I sometimes struggle to feel at ease in the company of too many strangers. I tend to respond well to being in the company of possitive people, but sad and negative peaple makes me almost physically ill/depressed. I'm ADD too, if there's relevance? I think it has to do with once's magnetic field/aura. I also think that one can develop this "gift" with the right guidance. The first thing to learn though would be to protect yourself from the negatives that affects you. I'm Christian, but not blindly conservative. I think there's a scientific explanation for it. Pheromones and maybe electromagnetic fields of the brain added to better than normal perception of body language.

originally posted by: NateTheAnimator
a reply to: pirhanna

No, its more like "normal" folks are constantly projecting their emotions at everyone else, and have no idea how to keep it to themselves.

It's more likely that this is the case for many who consider themselves to be empathetic.
However there is some evidence to support that for those whom are socially anxious,they may have increased empathy.

Social cognition in Social Anxiety

And then you have mirror neurons.

The mind's mirror

I think most empaths learn how to put up walls to some extent. Some people will think that an empath that uses these walls has very little emotion or connection, when actually the opposite is true. The ability of empath to isolate oneself is very important, both physically and psychologically. Also, an empath can feel people they are close to, no matter the physical distance. Sight isnt required for an actual empath. Some non-empaths are very empathetic and responsive to seeing other peoples gestures and posture and hearing voice inflection, though in my experience that is a completely different mechanism at work.

I actually perform music live, which is an interesting experience. Love being on stage and getting an empath level feedback on my performance. Hate sitting around in a crowded bar for hours. I often go for walks outside.

Whomever mentioned that people that are in emotional / psychological pain are drawn to empaths is 100% true in my experience. Also people with serious mental health issues. Choosing friends / relationships for an empath is tricky business for so many reasons.

originally posted by: pirhanna
Some people will think that an empath that uses these walls has very little emotion or connection, when actually the opposite is true. The ability of empath to isolate oneself is very important, both physically and psychologically.

Yes, I finally learned to stay in an "even" energy - - - not sending out any energy spikes.

Don't need to be a flashing beacon with a neon sign saying "here I am".

I tend to be a loner in my personal space - - - but, can turn it on if I want to socialize.

It is kinda fun to energy "lasso" that cute guy across the room