Male vs. Female Empaths

Well I can only hope when you come to a conculsion about me that you will be kind.

And I agree that there are other types of shields but that is complicating the matter. In fact, that is a whole topic in and of itself.

Peace

A.T
(-)

reply to post by DragonflyKingdom


Remember you arent meant to stop it, everything happens for a reason no matter how tired that saying is. You need to find out why you have this ability and what the need is for it.

what dragonflykingdom says (above) is 100% correct. Personally, being empathic is a good thing the good and the bad. As said above, " You need to find out why you have this ability and what the need is for it." For me the ability I have isn't just something that constantly knocks me down with horrible emotions from the depressed, or makes me physically ill from the anger and hatred running throughout the world. It is something I use to try and learn to see if I could possibly help in the future. Yes, granted, I do have the bad symptoms from being empathic as any knowing empath should have, it is all part of the ability, but, It is probably the best thing to have. Sheilds or not, whether you have just learned you are empathic or you have known for years. This ability is I believe supposed to be used for helping the people of the world. When Empaths are happy, we radiate a certain energy that people around us absorb, same with the other emotions. We are who help the world with their emotions, it is "us" that is usually Prescribed medications for bipolar because of our ranges and how fast we notice things. We, as a whole run the worlds emotions, some cannot take it, but it is Us that helps. We are the ones that people don't realize are there, but in a way know we are, because of the lightened moods. I think that the need for this ability is to honestly help the others of the world more than hurt us. If you are an empath, you were given the gift because you can handle not because someone/thing is trying to make you go insane.

It really isn't anything scientific, but it seems to be that women tend to be more open and capable with the perceptive abilities.

Just seems to be that way. I don't see why it shouldn't, considering like everything else this is built into our DNA. Certain abilities may be partially gender specific.

It's also seems to me that the more interactive abilities seem to find their way into males more often then females. This is rather unfortunate, because abilities like telekinesis take significantly more concentration and practice, therefore you don't hardly hear anyone with completely accidental cases of moving something without touching it.

It can be also much less evident that someone in the room influenced an object to move. For example, lets say a door closes without any apparent outward force being applied to it. Most people would just shrug it off, right?

That's just my two sense I suppose.

EDIT:
I used to be capable of Precog, Empathy, and Telepathy, and I each of them happened of their own volition(most of the time anyway). One day I woke up and all of them were hypersensitive for some reason. It wasn't that I kept getting assaulted by bad emotions, it was that I was getting WAY too much input at one time. It hurt.
I went home that day with the worst headache I've ever had. After that day I did my best to turn all of them off.

Ever since I rarely get any input, and I'm happy with that.

[edit on 16-2-2008 by Voidmaster]

Just a quick message, Im a male empath from the UK and found that the description on tinwiki to be very accurate.

I find that it "tingles" when in an intimate situation with someone, alot of the time its fantastic, almost orgasmic, but sometimes if there's any underlying feelings or thoughts in my partner i pick up on them almost immediately, sometimes before my partner even has (or at least seemingly). This can be both a blessing and a curse! I've managed to limit it to only when its needed.. although in a heightened state of emotion it can become rather uncontrollable..

All in all treat it as a gift, even if it seems like its getting you down. I see it as all the positive things i have gotten out of it out way the negatives..

Cjx

Up until a mere few hours ago, I had no clue what an empath was. Until happening upon a rather in-depth description on some paranormal website somewhere and finding it fit perfectly. All my life I'd thought I was some sort of fluke, some isolated factor X in the great equation of life. Stumbling through my existance wondering why the pain of the heart never stops and pondering with all I have why the world is the way it is. But I'll not bore you with such things any further.

To answer previous questions, I am male. And on the subject of there being more empaths of one gender than the other. I think that would be, like most things, a question of the circumstances of ones raising. As girls are brought up more free of many of the emotional bias that befall boys. Boys are raised to eventually become men, and men are generally expected to harden themselves to a certain degree. So in my opinion, it's not so much that there are more or less empaths of one gender or another, it's what society has molded that person, and his/her respective gender to be.

I will say that, as an empath, you should remain true to yourself. And not let society's expectations push you to do much of what I've done as a three-time war vet. Because unlike them, most of whom seem to brush aside hatred and atrocity as if it were merely dust upon their shoulders, you will never live it down inside, and will likely never find it in yourself to consider yourselves forgiven.

Originally posted by CloudlessKnight
I've been thinking about this for a while now. I'm wondering if there are more female than male empaths, or visa versa, and if the gender of the empath has anything to do with the strength of the person's ability. Often you hear about "women's intuition" and women being more emotional than men. So does this have anything to do with empathic abilities? Could women be, more often than men, natural empaths?

So what do ATSers think? How many empaths do we have in this forum? Male or female?

I'm an empath (and a pretty strong one, just undisciplined). I'm a male.

Wow, I didn't know any male empaths at all, I guess because most of them are taught to turn it off to be accepted in society.
I am A female empath.
Good thread.

First of all, how are you defining empath?
As a person who can really ''feel'' / understand the way someone else feels?
Or as someone who starts mimicing someone else's feelings? Like a copycat? (He's angry so so am I. lol)

Because the definition I would preferably use to define empaths is:

em·pa·thy (ěm'pə-thē)
n.
Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives. See Synonyms at pity.

If you simply get mad because someone else gets mad I wouldn't call that empathy, because empathy usually means truly understanding why someone is feeling the way he is, *regardless* of whether you get into his/her emotional state.

Having said that, my *guess* is that there are more male empaths than others.

Why?

Because whereever I go, it seems (to me, mind you) males are the ones that are nicer to other people in general, and seem to be better at grasping your emotion and then lifting your spirit. (Again, this is what I have perceived, based ''on average''.) Even battle-hardened soldiers can be empaths, they have feelings too.

When looking at women, I more often see women are more mean in general to other people. (Again, this is based on my perception, "on average".)

Now in my eyes, if you truly understand how other people feel, you wouldn't go hating some of them for no particular (good) reason. Even if they're having certain feelings for all the wrong reasons. If they conflict with your own feelings, then maybe. But then I'd consider you to be a bad sport lol.

Of course I could be wrong but hey, that's just my view, my opinion, not trying to push anything as facts here.

And last but not least, personally I consider myself to be an empath, and I'm a male. (Though as far as I know I'm not capable of doing psy-empathic stuff like emotion projection, lol)

[edit on 17/6/09 by -0mega-]

reply to post by ldyserenity



Fascinating timing - a good friend of mine and I are both empaths, one male, one female and he is uncomfortable with his abilities as he related just recently because he is male. We have strengths in different areas - and for me being an empath is not just understanding another's emotions - it's like trying on a coat. I know it's a coat (I know what emotion the other is feeling) and I know it's not my coat as I can separate out the presence of another person attached to that coat. Being overwhelmed by the negative happens sometimes - grounding and meditating work, and above all, stay turned towards the light. Of course, without the darkness we would not know the light - so it's there, just look at it from the standpoint of the light. It is a gift, I do think it's perhaps related to karma from other lives, and it has to be managed, just like any other talent.

Disclaimer: I'm a theist but not of the Abrahamic faiths. I have minor biblical scholar and scriptural skills. Also I am not a scientific/legal or medical expert in any field. Beware of my Contagious Memes! & watch out that you don't get cut on my Occams razor.All of this is my personal conjecture and should not be considered the absolute or most definitive state of things as they really are. Use this information at your own risk! I accept no liability if your ideology comes crashing down around you with accompanying consequences!

Explanation: 1stly lets get the jargon we are using accurately identified.
From freedictionary.com...

Empathic
[empath′ik]
Etymology: Gk, en, into, pathos, feeling
pertaining to or involving the entering of one person into the emotional state of another while remaining objective and distinctly separate.
Mosby's Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. © 2009, Elsevier.

[bold my emphasis!]

Empathy
em·pa·thy (mp-th)
n.
1. Identification with and understanding of another's situation, feelings, and motives. See Synonyms at pity.
2. The attribution of one's own feelings to an object.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[en- + -pathy (translation of German Einfühlung).]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

[All Links below link to wikipedia pages.]
Personal Disclosure: I have a feeling that the above described ability has a solid basis supported by Mirror-neurons and the Simulation theory of empathy all wrapped up in the Theory of Mind!

And I quote directly from the Mirror-neuron wiki Link concerning Gender differences that have reportedly been measured....
"[edit] Gender differences
The issue of gender differences in empathy is quite controversial and subject to social desirability and stereotypes. However, a series of recent studies conducted by Yawei Cheng, using a variety of neurophysiological measures, including MEG,[56] spinal reflex excitability, [57] electroencephalography, [58][59] have documented the presence of a gender difference in the human mirror neuron system, with female participants exhibiting stronger motor resonance than male participants."


P.S. Starred and Flagged!