Misconceptions

Misconceptions about Empaths and empathy:
A common misconception about empathy and empathic sense is that it is limited to emotion. I have seen this description on quite a lot of websites; it is almost like the pop psychology explanation that just scratches the surface. The truth is that you can selectively expand your consciousness and merge on other levels, such as the body, mind, void, etc.

An even broader misconception is that emotions and feelings are the same thing – or that there are no feelings beyond emotion. There are so many feelings beyond emotion that words fail very quickly. People are very disturbed by this kind of ability or gift if you tell them about it because you are saying that these socially conditioned boundaries are not really there. Most people's response will be, "this is all in your head." This may be their only way of dealing with such a threatening idea. You could introduce this kind of experience to someone by just telling them that it is a very limited emotional sensing and then explain more as they warm up to the idea. In truth however, a skilled empath can in theory feel the raw physical power of another persons energy, their emotions, their thoughts, and their mental space.

More than just people:
The biggest misconception I read about empathy is that it is limited to people. In other words it gets brushed off as a hallucination based on physical and linguistic cues. Empathy and projection into shells is not limited to people though. Basically any object that exists can be projected into. Trees, stars, clothing, jewelry, seeds, bugs, animals, etc, etc. When you start having some of the more intense experiences with non human objects then it becomes very apparent that you are dealing with an expanded state of consciousness. You can access deeply intense states of joy, understanding, peace, and voidness by expanding your consciousness into trees.

An empath is not limited by space or time. He or she can tune into how someone feels thousands of miles away or many years ago. Most likely unseen objects can be seen into as well. For example, transpersonal objects or states of mind. I have not yet tried doing that though. My cousin said he would like to go back in time to a particular period and I am definitely curious what kind of experience you would have if you tuned into that transpersonal/transtemporal space. As for objects you can see today, jewelry is interesting to tune into. Toyoko Matsuzaki says, "When enough hado [energy] is imprinted on an inanimate object, it starts to have its own energy or heart...objects that have a long history, such as masterpieces, have more than a heart; they have a spirit." - The Healing Power of Hado (p. 25, 31). This is such a strange sight to behold! For these objects with long histories, you can actually see a face if you close your eyes and enter the object's shell.

Lines in the sand:
The socially acceptable form of empathy is between to people that love each other; it would not be abnormal to say that you can "tune in" and share emotions with your spouse. Where it starts to get abnormal is when you claim to be able to do this outside this kind of relationship. And where it starts to get even more abnormal is when you claim to be able to do this on non-human objects or organisms. I would say that empathy is merely the ability to expand your awareness out of your own system and into something else.

Actually after you have some of these more bizarre experiences with stars and trees at will it becomes apparent that demarcation between what is inside you and what is outside you is provisional; in other words awareness is everywhere at all times and you can choose to erase socially installed boundaries at will. It is not that the boundaries don't exist -- they do -- they are just entirely provisional.

Spelling:
Many visitors to this site are misspelling clairsentience. They are typing in "clairsentence" instead.