Empathy

**Similar To:** | Apathy

**Empathy** is the ability to feel and understand other people's feelings, emotions, and desires.

## Description

The user can fully interpret and replicate the emotions, moods, and temperaments of others without reading apparent symptoms, allowing them to understand introverts or discover one emotion is actually hiding another. They can attack someone in a personal and emotional way since they know exactly what emotion is flowing through themselves and can use this knowledge to play against them.

Usually over time, an Empath's power grows to the point that they can manipulate emotions on others, and possibly use them to empower themselves. The user may learn to extend their power over/on vast number of sentient beings or reach extreme distances, even other levels of existence but this may be possible only if the user has emotional link to those they search already in effect.

The most basic level of empathy involves feeling what other people are feeling, either automatically or by focusing on them. The former usually occurs when the user encounters strong emotions or is new to the power. Users can also understand and interpret the reason or truth behind certain emotions, often instantly, thereby gaining some insight into what others are thinking, physically feeling (touch, pain, medical effect, etc) or their desires. However, this is not always the case. Occasionally, users may find it difficult or even impossible to determine the cause of certain emotions without being told or directly seeing what prompted it.

Stronger forms of Empathy can be used to channel emotions from any being that can produce them (for example; animals and spirits). Users can use it locate a person, verify a person's existence by sensing their emotions, be alerted to nearby disasters by picking up on the volume of the victims' emotions and pain, and can even become able to use the power as a lie detector. Empathy can also be used to shoulder the emotions of broken spirits, such as Will o' the Wisps, allowing them to cross over. Due to clones not having real emotions, the original can be identified through the use of empathy.

The power may initially be hard to switch off and as such, can cause inexperienced users to act on the emotions as if they were their own or become overwhelmed, but meditation and practice will solve this problem. Additionally, Empathy can only be handled by beings that are meant to have the power. When others gain this power, it will eventually overwhelm them, which can drive them insane and even kill them.

* Developed Abilities
* Insanity and Demons
* Different Planes/Realities

Empathy has *many* branches of power, ranging from very weak to very advanced. As the user becomes more advanced, these branches may grow. Here are some abilities that other empaths may gain:

* **Apathy:** Some Empaths can negate emotions in oneself or possess none at all. So that the user will not have any emotions making them emotionless or in other words "souless" or have no "humanity". Most often to deal with psychological stress or pain. This is only developed by very skilled Empaths.
* **Clairaudience:** Some Empaths have displayed the ability to not only feel emotions, but also "hear" the heightened thoughts associated with that specific emotions. This is probably due to the fact that both cortices (emotional and mental) so closely relate to one another. An example would be if an empath senses two spouses aiming a lot of hatred towards one another. The empath might get the echo of thought along with that emotion (E.g. "I cant believe he's cheating on me after all these years"). However this is not to be confused with Telepathy. An Empath can only get visionary "echoes" related to certain emotions. They **cannot** read full memories.
* **Clairempathy:** More advanced users of empathy have shown the ability to sense emotions over great distances such as cities, countries, continents, and other dimensions and planes
* **Clairvoyance:** An Empath can forge an emotional connection with another being. If that connection stays opens, the Empath is able to sense when that person is in danger and is also able to locate them by their "emotional scent".
* **Empathic Echoes:** To emotionally receive and send glimpses of memories, or mental imagery associated with certain emotional states current or past.
* **Empathic Healing:** This is a level that is somewhat rare and not many can master. Empaths can heal emotional wounds, but healing physical wounds is somewhat uncommon. When an Empath "heals" wounds that are physical, they don't heal the actual injury. The Empath simply takes the pain into themselves so the victim no longer feels that pain. Empaths can easily heal emotional wounds
* **Empathic Illusion Casting:**Empaths can create illusions based on certain emotions.
* **Empathic Mimicry:**  Higher level Empaths can use this power to tap into others' abilities. This is done by the Empath channeling someone and finding the exact emotion that triggers their power. The Empath, so long as they remember that emotion, is able to use/copy that person's power, and maybe even turn that power against the original user.
* **Empathic Projection:** Some Empaths can develop the ability to project their own emotions onto others.
* **Intuitive Empathic Replication:** Unlike Empathic Mimicry where the user simply channels and copies others powers, Intuitive Empathy gives that user the knowledge on how to use the ability intuitively.
* **Empathic Teleportation:** To teleport to your presence/teleport to someone who you have strong feelings for. This is only used by Cupids through their rings.
* **Lie Detection:** Empaths can sense when a person is lying to them, as lying can cause an irregularity in one's emotions. More skilled users can pick out the lie and find the truth.
* **Panempathy:** To sense and feel emotions of billions or more subjects at once.
* **Pathifery:** To warp reality based on one's instincts, feelings, and emotions, rather than actual coherent thoughts or words.
* **Psychic Navigation:**Empaths can sense a person by the emotional wavelength they give off or "empathic scent".
* **Psychometry:** There are some places that have constant emotional residue (due to major events happening in that location war, death, historical moments, etc.). Some Empaths are able to tap into those emotional (lower level users that enter these places are overpowered involuntarily) imprints and re-experience those emotions as if they were happening in that moment. If skilled enough, some Empaths can also see the emotional echoes (images/residual ghosts) still there. This would be due to high levels of concentrated emotional energy.
* **Telempathy:** Empath can not only sense others emotions, but they can also send their own emotions to others. Users can communicate with one another emotionally and if skilled enough send "echoes" (ie: it means a quick glimpse of an images and thoughts, e.g. sending the emotion of love to another user and the receiver seeing an image of their loved one like a mother, child, or spouse) of images back and forth.

"*I'm afraid that you're in danger, you weren't meant to receive this gift. You can't handle it.*"
—Leo expressing concern for Prue.

The power of Empathy can drive a being insane if they are not destined to have it, however, demons can never gain this power naturally, due to the fact that they cannot handle human emotions. It would destroy them or drive them insane.

"*I don't know, maybe try feeling her? The demon created these worlds by using our emotions, right? I don't know, maybe use him as a conduit to tap into her feelings.*"
—Paige suggesting Phoebe use her power to sense Piper

Empathy is one of the very few powers that is capable of stretching through different planes of existence and alternate realities. Phoebe first revealed this while in one of Gith's emotion/desire fueled realities and used her power to tap into Piper's emotions, sensing her sister's fear even though she was in a different reality. Once this connection was made, Phoebe and Paige were able to use their combined desires in order to shift themselves through Gith's realities and transport themselves to Piper.
## **Limitations**

* Might get taken over and act on the emotions the feel from others.
* Inexperienced Empaths may find their powers completely useless in a fight.
* May experience headaches.
* May not be able handle large amounts of emotions at once.
* Defenseless against beings that have no emotions.
* May be easily possessed by Spirits and Ghosts, as they are beings bound by emotions.

## List of Users

**Original Power**

* Father Thomas
* Guardian Angels  (connection to their charges allows them to feel their charges' pain.)
* Cupids (limited in the sense that it only allow them to feel other people's emotions that are connected to love.)

## Notes

* Beings with the power of empathy are often referred to as Empaths.
* Empathy can be blocked if the user feels conflicted. It happened when Phoebe tried to read Enola and possibly when she tried to read Cal Greene. This type of blockage is common with psychic powers as it also happens with a power like Premonition.
* There is a potion that can block an Empath from reading people's emotions. The effects of the potion is temporary, and is hard to make, since it requires a Kotochul Egg, which can only be found in Swamp Land.
* A witch can use a spell to extract this power from someone: To Relinquish an Empath's Power. If physical contact is made while the spell is cast, the power will transfer to the spell caster.