Sociopath Community

Empathy is more of a sliding scale rather than a binary thing, there are people who feel it but are otherwise still challenged over processing it for one reason or another. 

On the higher end of the scale it feels like other people's feelings are assaulting them as they are unable to shut them out, which tends to produce Introverted behaviors. 

God is an empath....  and I believe in Oneness with God and that everyone is connected with everything and part of God and God themselves,  All is One,  and One is all-->  perhaps research Unity consciousness)  soo yeah eventually everyone comes out of sociopathy and narcissim into empathy.

No need to hate on Empaths,  they are way more evolved psychologically and spiritually than narcissists and sociopaths and the like  :):)🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🤍🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊

Chapo said: 

This is 100 percent not what empathy is....  people's vibrations include what they are feeling,  but there is a lot more to it than that because empaths sense the totality of a person's vibrations including what is in their subconsciouses,  and with narcissists and sociopaths and psychopaths and cluster b personality disordered people there is a lot more repressed subconscious stuff in them going on than in the rest of the human population

I personally never think that "I know for sure" what a person is thinking or feeling  (although I know that God/  my highest vibrational self knows)-->  I am extremely sensitive to the energetic vibrations of All That is,  though

I specifically am a heyoka empath,  but there are different types of empaths and some might be super attuned to other people's thoughts and surface level feelings more.  heyoka empaths are the most powerful empaths and also super spiritual as in from since birth we are always in both the physical world and the spiritual world simultaneously,  at the same time

and there is no "off" switch  -->,  heyoka empaths Illuminate all that is unhealthy and toxic in this world,  as well as the roots of people's pain and suffering and try to influence everyone and everything into as much physical,  mental/ psychological,  emotional,  soul wholesomeness and soul integration and spiritual health,  peace,  balance and harmony as possible,  and prioritizing soul integration and soul wholesomeness and Oneness with God/  All That is

^  and this is my hot take  :p:p  (Am I licking your face like a coyote puppy ??  maybe  >.>  🦅🐺🦊🐕🐶🐾🌅🌄)

To Palepeach's point, a lot of what I read on the Internet about empaths sounded almost like magic. It's used differently as a clinical term and colloquially.

Colloquially, most of the layperson articles started with something like "How can you tell that you're an empath, which is basically a superpower? Look for these 17 signs to know for sure." And then I was met with stuff from Harry Potter. Weird mix of astrology, psychology, and the supernatural.

The clinical usage is something like if you're at far enough on the sliding scale, then we categorize you as an empath. Personally, I find the Harry Potter definition more exciting.

On that, I have to ask, is She Aubrieta? I read about Heyoka empaths. I was going to dismiss it at first because the energy vibration thing was so far out there, but I realized that a lot of what she says connects with my vocabulary for another subject where I struggle to find the right words, so I'd be a bit hypocritical then to dismiss it. If I let myself be a bit less scientific, maybe a lot of these experiences of spiritual phenomena relate to some human experience that is difficult to put into words. I think building language around it certainly helps as long as the language and the experiences are shared.

I've some notion of 'energy vibrations' but I can only imagine what it means. For me, that would be a proxy for a person's mood and I imagine that after focusing on those vibrations long enough my brain would naturally start to see patterns, like meta vibrations and more complicated shapes, which would help me simplify the process. Maybe we can explain all these spiritual phenomena with science.

I imagine all this empath phenomenology is in the end for the good of society. I do the same thing as that empath practice,  but with other things.. Believing you can do something ironically makes it possible.

Chapo said: 

So much irony in Chapo of all people posting this. 

She said: 

This is 100 percent not what empathy is....  people's vibrations include what they are feeling,  but there is a lot more to it than that because empaths sense the totality of a person's vibrations including what is in their subconsciouses,  and with narcissists and sociopaths and psychopaths and cluster b personality disordered people there is a lot more repressed subconscious stuff in them going on than in the rest of the human population

I personally never think that "I know for sure" what a person is thinking or feeling  (although I know that God/  my highest vibrational self knows)-->  I am extremely sensitive to the energetic vibrations of All That is,  though

It's called Mirror Neurons, and you can usually test this in people with Microexpression analysis ala Paul Ekman's studies. 

Unlike Sympathy, which is closer to perspective-taking over their situation, Empathy is your mind modeling off of the people around you through physical tells to the point of adopting characteristics, such as how people fall prey to maneuvers such as "Appeal To Emotion". It's the mind's attempt by design to have people follow the herd, kind of like how birds follow flight patterns or lemmings run off cliffs. 

It's like smiling when you see someone else smile and saying it feels good, or being motivated to anger with the only reason being that you're next to another angry person. This is also what can make people a sucker for actors in well made productions over how they can elicit those feelings out of themselves, and thereby others who see them, by calling upon past events in their own life to appropriate that expression elsewhere (otherwise known as Method Acting). 

Speaking as someone who processes pain incorrectly, this can in me lead to confusing results over it processing in myself incorrectly while witnessing another's experiences. Beyond that though I would count myself as among those who are Empathetic to the point of introverted weakness and constant distraction, witnessing others who are less inhibited by it being able to direct themselves and be selfish with more ease. In many respects Empathy can be construed as the weakness of a Bleeding Heart, and that lot are the sort who need to be reminded that being selfish can be okay sometimes. 

Empathy isn't some gift or super power, it's a sliding scale over how open or closed off someone else is when it comes to Emotional Contagion. If you can be in a room full of crying people and feel nothing, that to me looks more like the super power. Too much Empathy lends towards a reduced sense of self over finding becoming like those around them habit-forming like a social chameleon, while one deaf to the feelings of others has more ability to be self-directed.

Empathy can often be found alongside traits like codependency as well, and can manifest as social exhaustion even as the group does nothing overtly physical to such a point that they'll tend towards smaller groups of more positive minded individuals for their own peace of mind. For myself it's lent towards picking emotionally extreme partners, and the closest to an "off switch" for me when it comes to empathy is being alone with no one else around, not even animals.

It's otherwise always on, and it's weirdly alien to watch people who are seemingly deaf to the connection humans can otherwise have, extending even towards mammals overall. From my experiences, you tend to see more empaths working in jobs that involve animals. 

Speculation of mirror neurons and their connection to empathy is on-going. 

The linked paper said:

More importantly, the biggest problem with mirror neurons and empathy is in the use of the word “putative” in the previous sentence. In the quarter century since mirror neurons were first described, speculation about their role in empathy continues. However, to date, few to no data exist that actually implicate them in this role. In the words of one respected psychologist, mirror neurons are, “the most oversold idea in psychology” (Hickok, 2014).

I wonder about autism with this analysis.  Also, empathy and working with animals.  Is it, you think, because animal emotional expression is less conflicted-seeming, than when interacting with humans, which can layer obfuscation and complexity?

Where do you place, if any, distinction between Affective and Cognitive Empathy?