Empowered by sensitivity? It sounds strange, doesn’t it? Sort of ironic, contradictory, even mutually exclusive.
How can you be empowered by something so soft, subtle and delicate, in a world full of hard, overpowering and loud people? Indeed, many of us Empaths get trampled, used, thrown around, and taken advantage of. But we have a secret.
Deep down inside, beyond the veil of our superficial appearances, we harbor something quiet, but powerful. Our gifts don’t dominate, tyrannize or overthrow people, but that doesn’t detract from their strength, or usefulness. If anything, our powerful but subtle gifts benefit us more in the long term, allowing us to gather emotional, psychological and physical information from our surroundings that is often inaccessible and undisclosed to the average, unreceptive mind.
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While we can’t bully, back-stab or use brute force, we can heal, guide, protect and deeply understand the lives of the people around us. In essence, we can gather immense amounts of knowledge. And knowledge, as they say, is power.
If you would like to discover whether you are an empath, take our empath test. Also, if you would like to discover what type of Empath you are, you will discover the 10 types at the end of this article.
Are You An Empath?
If you are an Empath, you will experience a combination of some or all of the following symptoms:
- You absorb other people’s emotions like a sponge, carrying them as your own.
- When someone close to you is physically ill, you can feel this as physical pains in your body.
- You often suffer from physical or mental fatigue and tiredness.
- You find Solitude immensely refreshing, and you require it to “recharge”.
- You often experience many mood swings or emotional states throughout the day.
- Witnessing violence or cruelty is unbearable to you.
- You are a very good listener.
- People often come to you with their problems.
- Animals and children are attracted to you.
- You are caring and nurturing by nature.
- You are hyper-aware of the physical environment, e.g. to smell, taste, sight, touch, hearing, etc.
- You can’t stand interpersonal conflict.
- Crowded places are very overwhelming and draining to you.
10 Types Of Empaths
While being an Empath can have its many positives and benefits, it can also weigh us down heavily with confusion, disorientation and anxiety. That is why it’s important to put a name to what we individually experience to better understand ourselves, and identify others who share the same abilities as us.
For this reason, I have included below a list, and small description, of each type of Empath. By understanding who you are, what gifts you possess and where you stand in life, you will be able to begin working with your soul. I elaborate on these types in our awakened empath book.
Claircognizant Empath
This is usually defined by the ability to simply know something needs to be done, or is true or misleading, without having any basis in logic or reason. Often this type of Empath will just “know” when something is right to do, or not, or when someone is lying or hiding something.
Emotionally Receptive Empath
Most Empaths are emotionally receptive, and can physically and emotionally feel the emotions from other people before they are even expressed.
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Physically Receptive Empath
Many Empaths are also physically receptive to other people’s illnesses and bodily pains. This often manifests itself in the Empath’s own body, and can be an especially useful skill in healing.
Fauna Empath
This type of Empath can hear, feel and interact with animals.
Flora Empath
This type of Empath can communicate with plants, being able to receive physical and emotional signals.
Geomantic Empath
The Geomantic Empath can read the energy and signals transmitted by the earth. Many are able to feel/predict natural disasters before they occur.
Medium Empath
This type of Empath can either see, hear, feel (or a combination of these elements) spirits, usually from deceased individuals.
Psychometric Empath
This manifests itself as the ability to receive information, energy and impressions from physical objects, e.g. photographs, clothing, jewelry, utensils, etc.
Precognitive Empath
This type of Empath can feel the occurrence of an event or situation before it actually happens. This is usually manifested in dreams, or as physical/emotional sensations, for instance: dread, anxiety, or excitement.
Telepathic Empath
The ability to accurately read a person’s unexpressed thoughts is the main defining feature of the Telepathic Empath.
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If you have trouble identifying which empathic gift you have, feel free to take our Empath Type Test
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Being an Empath can be difficult and confusing, but with awareness of your gifts and abilities, you can refine them and use them to guide, heal and protect yourself and the people you love.
My hopes are that the information within this article can continue to make ripples within your life. Please share with me any stories or experiences you have below. This will help all of us broaden our knowledge and understanding of what it is to be an Empath!
If you would like to keep reading about empaths, you’re welcome to click on one of our other empath articles below:
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Thank you for this article. I’m an empath & identify with a couple of the different types of empaths that you listed. I’m able to pick up on others emotions very easily, which is a constant struggle for me & people don’t understand why sometimes I just want to be alone & immerse myself in a good book. I also have the ability to communicate with the dead (it runs in my family, so I’m not the first & won’t be the last), fortunately for me I’ve learned to close my mind to this particular “gift”, unless its a very strong spirit.
I guess my question is this, is it possible to be more than one type of empath? Because I seriously struggle sometimes being around people. I can feel the negativity of people it seems from miles away & I try to stay positive, but it becomes increasingly harder as time goes on. So any help would be extremely appreciated.
I feel like I’m losing my empathetic touch. Like I do understand people, but its just different.
My own emotions are having a conflict. I can feel and understand others, why can’t they at least try to understand me. With these types of thoughts, I can’t feel others; my own emotions on the run.
What do you think I should do?
Amazing post though!!
Thank you…
PS. I’m an emotionally repressed person.
I understand Amy. I’ve gone through this frustration with others as well because being an empath does not necessarily equal having empathy.
The reality is that most people are absorbed in themselves; their problems, their thoughts, their feelings, their lives. Due to the structure of our society and our current values (“I’m Number #1”) we were not taught empathy as children (at least most of us weren’t). So although you are an empath, you need to develop your empathy, which is the ability to actually understand the reasons why people think, feel and say what they do.
One trick I like to remember is that the reason most people are selfish, cruel, unkind and dislikable is because of pain. Everyone is experiencing some deep form of pain inside, whether that be insecurities, trauma, loss, fear of abandonment, and so forth. Once you can stop reacting to the surface words and actions of a person and look to look deeper into their pain, you can truly begin to empathize with them, and thus not get so angry with the.
Hope this helps, and if so, do let me know!
I’ve actually done that! What I really like about myself is that I can look into people and kind of figure out things about them; like read them. And that’s how I have technically never been able to hate anyone. Its either been their past or their present.
But, what the problem really is that the world is half-vicious and few of the ‘humans’ don’t deserve the empathy.
Thank you so much! :D
amy
I felt misunderstood all the time from my childhood. My family blamed me that i always attract negative people and am melodramatic. I was tired of all these and during those dark period i pray to god to give me strength and send someone who can understand me. Finally i get that here. From my childhood i knew i am different and so much misfit to this society but never figured out the reason. Thanks a lot as today all of my questions are answered. I went everywhere from psyciatist to psychologist. Diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. My relationship with my family, my career was a real mess but now i am releaved and proud to be an empath. I went through the test and scored 96. I wanna use this to heal the people around me without damping my emotion. If anybody help me i will be greatful. I have those power but don’t know how to use it. Thanks again for helping me understand my true power.
Mayuree, I wrote recently about how to heal as an empath here: https://lonerwolf.com/healed-whole-empath/
I’m really glad that this article could help. :)
This is very interesting, but scary, I think Iam an Empath. It is hard for me to except, but explains a lot, emotions all over the place, I knew a neighbor was dead even before knowing them I can meet a person and know more about them than I want to, thx
Why scary Pamela?
Thanks for reading.
i’m a believer being an empaths not so bad but feeling other people emotions can be horrlbe sometimes i was confused at first why i was having pain , visions of other people ,and my head would explose all the time.
It is horrible if you attach yourself to the emotions of others. Once you slowly learn to let them pass by allowing yourself to experience them but not become consumed in them, they will quickly go. I’ve learned that the issues start when we begin resisting other people and their emotions. The more we resist, the more our suffering persists.
Another great article.
My empathic abilities vary with each type, full range of zero to very strong. And I find it all varies depending on my energy level at the time. As I experiment I usually get a new fascinating experience.
Thank you Larry. :) And as you age, these gifts usually tend to get stronger and more diversified as well.
I have been sensitive all my life. My family tortured me over it my entire growing up years. I would honestly feel the emotions in movies and books as well as those around me. Almost got hospitalized as a teen as crazy. I’m 1 of 7 kids. I have always been able to feel others emotions so strongly that I could say even at 6 or 7 a person I’d never met before was good or bad. When a person was good I’d get a feeling in my stomach of pleasure and when they were bad it would make me ill. Life was very hard but instead of giving me fear it gave me strength. For example there was a night when a very bad man wanted to hurt my family. I felt him coming and stood guard the entire night. I can’t really explain why I wasn’t terrified I can only say instead I was determined.
All my life I’ve had total strangers approach me. People in line at the grocery store tell me deep, meaningful things I believe without realizing til later what they are doing. I’m a draw for people. I feel like I’m a battery that gets filled with emotions and sickness and sick, emotional people want to give those things up. I discovered as a young adult that I can literally take away others ailments. I believe because I can take them unto myself (and dispurse them) that is what draws people to me. It’s nice to know though that I”m not as weird, crazy or unique as I thought. LOL
Thank you so much for helping people like us learn we’re not alone and also find each other.
I’m really glad that you can find others who can relate to your experience Tawnya. My pleasure. :)
The more i read the more happy i am. Till today i feel i am alone in this. Now happy to learn there are more people like me. I am best friend and friend s of many person but i never had anyone i can tell my feelings. Whenever i tried i was judged as crazy. Thank u Luna for understanding.
Hi Luna, I must thank you and Sol for founding and maintaining this wonderful website, I’ve discovered so many new things about myself these recent months and it’s great to find comfort in knowing that I’m not the only one. I’ve always been a loner and an outsider, in kindergarten I had to stay for one more year because I had not developed ‘proper’ social skills yet and these past months I’ve found out that I’m definitely an INTJ, a highly sensitive person and also an empath, which I just found out. Of the ten different kinds of empaths I most strongly connect to the Claircognizant & the Precognitive Empath but I also feel a strong appeal to the Flora & Fauna empath (I’ve had many strange situations with wild animals and always feel empathic to both plants and animals).
I’ve always instinctively had a belief in reincarnation and it also always seemed to be the most logical thing to believe in. I live in the southern part of the Netherlands, where there are more Roman Catholic communities and churches than in the rest of the country but most people are Atheist or simply don’t think about what they believe in. The belief in reincarnation and the wholeness of the universe is ridiculed or entirely ignored in public and so my beliefs were automatically put to the back of my mind.
In high school I developed a strong urge to protect the ones around me and the rest of the world, I wanted to join the Royal Marines to be able to make a difference and because I have always had a strong urge for freedom. But in the Western world such an urge to protect is extorted by propaganda against ‘terrorists’ and the Russian people, it basically painted a picture for me that the world was one big dangerous place full of bad people, only in the ‘civilized’ western countries could you find peace. I held this belief for many years until, after I graduated from high school and failed to join the Marines, I found out the truth about the Western narrative and spend months learning the other side of the story and learned that the true instigators of all the conflicts in this world come mostly from our own governments and multinational corporations. The reason that I was able to get out of the illusion was because I believed in true freedom and I really wanted to help people, that was the only reason I tried to join the militairy.
But even after I had found out the truth about this material world, I still couldn’t find peace, if anything I felt more angry than ever, not only because of what the American and European governments had done but also because of how many people were so blind to not see it. After I watched the movie ‘Frozen’ I fell back in a depressive state for a short time (the first time was after I had lost my love, a close friend and my grandmother in a short period). I had to find out who I am. So I began to search the internet and found out that I’m an INTJ, it explained a lot of my personality and why I am who I am, it made me feel less lonely. After that I went from UFOs to Reptilians to Free energy to angels & demons and to ancient civilizations before us, I began to realize that there are multiple dimensions, that you have a third eye, I began to listen to philosophors like Alan Watts and Osho.
Finally, I came across your website and found out that I’m an Old Soul, a very old one according to many tests I have taken. I learned about the different soul ages and was able to connect it to the 16 personalities of MBTI. Then, while watching the video ”The real you – Alan Watts” it finally hit me; reincarnation, the existence of the soul and the wholeness of the universe – it is real.
Being partly a scientist I’ve orderd a score of books that prove the existence of reincarnation and therefor the existence of a soul, the book ‘Old Souls’ from Tom Shroder scientifically proves it with hard, undeniable evidence. It is sad that this work is largely ignored in mainstream science and therefor the public but why would there be a need for wars if everyone knows they will reincarnate, The militairy industry certainly wouldn’t like it. But this is something that people have to find for themselves.
I’m meditating now, I’ve stopped using fluoride toothpaste and started drinking a cup of warm lime water with honey every morning, I had already stopped drinking soda and eating chips. I still eat meat but knowing myself I will stop with that in due time as well.
I could write an entire book about my life and all my psychich experiences, out-of-place memories and past-life memories but I won’t put that here of course.
I hope you read this and I thank you if you did. I have one more question though; am I awakening now?
Aversum, the very fact that you ask the question “am I awakening now?” indicates that you have awakened. Most people aren’t aware of the awakening process, but from all that you have described, you most definitely have awakened. But this is only the start of your journey. Many people think that because they have awakened, there is not much left to go — but boy is there! If it is permissible in the place you live, you might like to try experimenting with shamanic herbs and plants such as psilocybin mushrooms, peyote/san pedro, cannibis, and other plants. These are renowned for their ability to introduce you to new possibilities in life. You will see that everything you have discovered is confirmed in these alternative states of consciousness.
Thank you for your reaction! I find it very comforting to read this from you. I’ve always felt that I needed to achieve these alternative states of consciousness on my own by meditating a lot, but something I also learned these past months is that everyone needs a little help now and then. I have a few good friends who smoke certain herbs and I’m sure I can go to them for help with experimenting with these herbs. Thank you and keep up the good work Aletheia Luna!
Very true, although I like to think of these herbs as complimentary and necessary to the experience of meditating. All cultures throughout the world have used various kinds of shamanic plants to connect with the divine, and it is unfortunate that our culture in this day and age makes this birth right illegal (because it does not support the current structure of society).
I would recommend starting small. :)
Best wishes with your adventures!
Yes I do still see the herbs as a means to an end. I’ll only use them to achieve these alternative states of consciousness and I will definitely start out small. Fortunately here in the Netherlands it is legal (to a certain extent) to experiment with different kinds of ‘soft drugs’ and I’m glad that we still have this right unlike many other countries.
I can’t thank you enough for this information.. Finally I have more understanding as to why I’ve felt this way for so many years and I’m not so alone in that feeling.
While I was working abroad one time, i walked into a room where a girl who had a distinct dislike of me (who a reason a never did fathom) was saying in English that I had “bad energy” this hurt. A couple of years later someone slightly more ‘in the know’ said that I’m like a sponge to the energy around me.
This morning all sorts of things have gone wrong so I’m going to carry on reading more of your articles. Thank you again.
I hope the other articles, like this one, helped to bring more understanding into your life, and your gifts. Thank you Helena. ;)
I just discovered a new world tonight that I can finally identify with, instead of feeling alone and like there is something wrong with me. I have already been attracted to many of the grounding techniques that have been suggested in my research tonight, after hitting a point of unbearable emotional upheaval and anxiety mid way through college. Meditation, self inquiry, silence, walks alone in nature, being by the water, reiki/massage, alone time in general after a week of work (I am a mental health counselor specializing in Crisis Services). I often find myself fully enthralled by a person, studying their faces, words, mannerisms and emotions. Often feeling as though I am loosing myself in them. I also can sense when people are disappoited and for a while had a hard time saying ‘no’, although I have gotten better at this. I have also gotten better at saying ‘no’ to doing things I don’t want to do, or being around people I don’t want to be around, although sometimes I feel guilty about this and worry I am being selfish. I often dream of water, and running away from it or seeing huge waves. These dreams are fully of anxiety. I also have sudden mood swings, a lot of the times when I wake up in the morning from a dream. I realize now that the odd and distinct feelings I get from being in a particular place, often a place that is older…are legitimate residual energy most likely. Some places make me depressed and I never knew why, especially when the people who were with me didn’t feel the same way. I could go on and on. Thank you for writing this article, I often feel alone and like I confused about why I exist…I feel excited about finally connecting with other beings like me. <3
My pleasure Adia. ^_^ I’m delighted that you can finally connect with something that feels true to who you are deep down!