If you *are* an Empath, you will know this is you, you will not be saying “Hmm.. maybe… hmm…” If you feel (without hesitation!) these apply to you as I’ve just described, then also know there are ways of coping, and I’ll get into them in future articles. With a little self-awareness you can turn your curse into gift, especially when it comes to being able to ease the emotional and physical pain of others. For now, take consolation in the knowledge that you are not crazy!For now... but then later, like tomorrow, go to the doctor.
Bonus political joke: These are the 7 questions President Obama uses to interview prospective Supreme Court justices." (Don't get my joke? Read this.)
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23 comments:
8) Do you speak with a slight Greek accent and wear a purple body suit?
All of these new coined terms for something the great writer and psychologist Knut Hamsun conveyed in his novels as early as the 1890's: that a human being is the subject of waves of emotions or emotional states that wash over him hundreds, maybe thousands of times a day. Read Hunger; Mysteries; Victoria.
You have to stay in bed for two days, but you're not really sick? Get out bed, you!
"You're not crazy!"
Possibly the one true thing in the article, I am in fact, not crazy. The same cannot be said with any certainty about Isabella Snow.
Old Letterman joke:
Oprah, Uma. Uma, Oprah.
New Letterman joke:
Emo, Empa. Empa, Emo.
#6 is The Blonde.
Does that make her a 14% empath?
PS Ann may be joking, but it explains the Wise Latina and the Short Shortstop from Haavahd as well as anything else.
I have to admit to being a little curious about how Isabella Snow would fare with a psychotic mulatto, bent on rape, torture and murder, driving a maroon Cutlass to a secluded location.
8) Do you speak with a slight Greek accent and wear a purple body suit?
9) Have you ever been the subject of a post at The Macho Response?
I would venture a guess and say that Empaths are also introverts.
My kids hated having an old man who could tell when they were lying.
Oh, and wait till Crack gets out of bed.
Basically this is the New Age extension of the psychobabble used to absolve poor behavior.
You're not bipolar, you're an asshole.
You don't have ADD, you'd just rather be doing something else.
Same here:
Those aren't inexplicable emotions in public crowds, it's anxiety.
You aren't experiencing other people's physical ailments, you're a hypochondriac. Either that or you want the attention.
You're emotionally overwhelmed by fictional things on TV because your ability to suspend disbelief and/or cope with your own emotions and just [i]deal with it[/i] have been stunted by the same upbringing that got you arriving at these bullshit conclusions.
I'm gonna go ahead and guess she's got some articles about Indigo Children out there too.
(Hope I didn't steal any of Crack's thunder)
Some of the comments above allude to a general notion that's difficult to express, but let me try:
People who think they can read minds are particularly bad at reading emotions and intent, and often they are mentally disturbed.
I subscribe to this notion. I also think I can read minds a bit, so to speak-- like ndspinelli, I can guess where my kids are going when they ask for something. Not science-fiction mind-reading, but just a father making a good guess.
So...where is my hubris? I think I'm particularly good at (1) estimating intelligence and (2) sensing when someone is lying. Maybe I'm actually particularly bad at those things.
My spidey sense tells me this is a crock.
"I can guess where my kids are going when they ask for something. Not science-fiction mind-reading, but just a father making a good guess."
Either that or good at recognizing patterns. Lord knows my boys are hopelessly predictable. Of course it helps that I was a little boy once too.
My working assumption is that people who believe they are empathetic actually suffer from a mood disorder such as depression or bi-polar disorder. They have enough self-awareness to realize that their mood is not justified by the circumstances of their lives. However, rather than realizing that their moods are screwed up, they look for an outside cause for their feelings.
I know for a fact that most women I meet are not empathetic, because no matter how horny I am, they never manage to share that feeling.
Ignoranceisbliss, This was discussed yesterday in the Maher thread.
Bob Ellison, You're probably good @ those things. You can test yourself to determine that. Right out of school I was thrust into a job working w/ hard core cons, many sociopaths. Without question, they are the toughest to read. The subjects just got easier after that.
I routinely have instances where people tell me, "That's what I was thinking", or that's what I was about to say." We all have those and they're often explained logically. However, I have had instances where there is no logical explanation. Here's an instance.
When I wass tending bar decades back a woman walked into the restaurant solo and sat @ the bar. Before she said anything I said, "Rhine wine." Her face went pale. She asked w/ a bit of fear in her voice, "How did you know." I said, "Well, I'm good @ remembering what people drink, it helps w/ tips", trying to get the scared look off her face. Plus, I figured that was the most likely explanation. She replied, "I've never had Rhine wine. I'm here from out of state for a conference. A woman @ lunch suggested I come here and said you poured a nice house Rhine wine. She'll be here shortly to meet me." I just shrugged and was busy so I went back to work. She didn't leave a tip. She was a woman after all.
We all put off an energy. Some put off more than others. Some are better @ picking up energies than others. This doesn't seem @ all new age or weird. Centuries from now I believe it will be mainstream. But, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong. I will say my ability to read people has literally saved my life.
If I want empathy, I will ask for it.
Explicitly.
If you are not asked, please empathize in silence.
It's nonverbal cues as well...what used to be called instinct which almost anyone can relate to.
Can't you feel it in the air when a meeting has gone badly and there are going to be layoffs at your company without hearing anything?
If you are in a foreign country where you don't speak the language can't you still tell when fight is about to break out in a bar or an official wants a bribe?
What allows someone to know what a toddler needs before they can speak? It's not just motherhood - some women are better at it than others including with other people's kids.
Or in the area of creepers, didn't you have a funny feeling about certain adults as a child.. like no matter how much the adults thought they were great you did NOT want to be alone with them because you knew something was wrong there?
I think there are instances where that kind of common instinct can become more specific. A generalized internet description like this, however, can be a flytrap for the psychologically fragile or troubled leading them off on time wasting tangent.
sleepless nights, The book Blink deals w/ a lot of this..that gut feeling. I always taught my kids to be attuned to their gut and act accordingly.
sleepless nights, good points. We can also look to seizure-alert dogs for examples of "mind reading". Dogs are extremely quick, and obviously (to dog owners) attuned to human behavior and emotions, but how do they do it?
Well, if I were omniscient, I'd just write a quick dissertation on it...but since I am omniscient, I know that you don't want to read it anyway.
I can't afford a doctor now that Obamacare made it free. Is anyone going to empathize with me?
And all you new agers, you're only allowed to be strict rationalist on Althouse. Otherwise you are due to be mocked severely by our crack staff.(pun intended)
All questions about the soul, mysterious happenings, strange occurrences, and just plain shit that science doesn't have an explanation for(Yet. But won't investigate, because that might threaten the status quo), are just that...happenstance, and just shut up.
The remote viewing experiments conducted by the US Army that had a 34% success rate is not scientific, and as such has no bearing on this discussion.(That they had a success rate of more than 1 indicates that there is something further to investigate).
Maybe it is "energy" given off and received by our bodies. A old friend of mine would hold to that argument. Maybe it is people being able to "read" other people at a subliminal level. Maybe it's the "Flying Spaghetti Monster"(apologies Pastafarian). Or maybe, just maybe, there's stuff we're discovering everyday, and people should be a little less judgemental.
I have synesthasia and if I told you that I could see peoples aura's or what I think are aura's would you believe me or think I was crazy? They aren't really aura's i've determined in my lifelong quest to filter out the garbage sensations I get, but that every person I meet resonates with a color based on how my brain interprets that sensory input. And probably the least empathic person in the world when it comes to people. Animals on the other hand...
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