Empathy

Empathy is the magical ability possessed by an Empath to experience the emotions of others without direct contact with them, as if they were actually feeling what one was feeling and for the same reasons. Empaths are also said to be able to use their power to heal people, by using the Empath's intimmate knowledge of what the person is feeling or has gone through and offering them advice or comfort.

Magical beings' powers are tied to their emotions, so Empaths can channel them through Empathy (such as Telepathy). But as Charmed shows it, there is a difference between Empathy-channeling to Telepathy-channeling. Channeling powers through Empathy works differently because the Empath feels the same emotion the other felt, and can access to deflect that power, or temporary using it (as seen in Valhalley of the Dolls, Part 2). Instead, channeling powers through Telepathy makes the user able to use the power, as they use the mind-trigger of the power.

Empaths with a advanced form of this power can use others or an individuals own emotions to incapacitating or even kill that said person. They can do this by flooding an individuals minds with their reflected emotions and overloading their brains with memories of people they've hurt and forcing them to feel the fear that their victims felt.

Phoebe is the only known Empath, with the advanced form of this power. Empathy can also drive someone insane, if they weren't meant to possess it. Demons also can't possess this power, due to the fact that they can't handle human emotions. It would destroy them or eventually drive them insane.

Vinceres and Prue Halliwell
The power is first seen in the Season 3 episode "Primrose Empath". Prue accidentally received the power of empathy from a demon called Vinceres through the use of a spell. Although she was fine with it at first, eventually, as it's range expanded, she was unable to control it developing to the point where she was constantly taking in the emotions of the surrounding San Francisco area. With the help of the Father Thomas, Prue was able to get a grip on the incoming emotions, channelling them into her other powers in order to help her battle the unstoppable demon Vinceres.

Amplifying Powers
All powers throughout Charmed are tied with the characters' emotions and someone with the power of empathy can amplifying their other powers by channelling a massive amount of emotions into them, in affect making their powers stronger and themselves more powerful. An example of this is Prue Halliwell, while possessing empathy, Prue effectively had the entire rainbow of human emotion under her belt, and to extreme degrees. This exceedingly high inflow of emotion granted her a massive power boost, to the point where she became stronger than even the thought-invincible demon assassin, Vinceres. Her telekinetic powers evolved to the degree where they significantly enhanced her agility and flexibility, allowing her to perform gravity-defying maneuvers and spectacular martial-arts feats that surpassed even those of Phoebe's, who had, by then, more than two years of training in self-defense. Her power of astral projection also evolved into Cloning, and by projecting into his body, carrying all the emotions of San Francisco with her, she ripped Vinceres apart, as demons cannot handle human emotions.

Witch-Empath
thumb|300px|right|A video about empathy.Phoebe Halliwell develops this as her third power in "Valhalley of the Dolls" Part 1. Phoebe says that it must have grown from her power of premonition. Eventually, she was able to control the flow of the emotions and could actively block the emotions that others were subconsciously sending to her but she never went through the struggle Prue did as she was always meant to have it. Phoebe soon learned how to use her Empathy in both offensive and defensive ways. Because powers are emotion based, Phoebe learned that she could channel powers as well as emotion. This developed so that she could shield herself against attacks, and redirect powers.

In Witchness Protection, when Phoebe tries to find information about the Avatars through Kyra by touching her, the jingle used for when Empathy is activated is heard. This possibly indicate that she regained her empathy much earlier than thought. But as she never displays it, and never speaks of it even, the sound may be just there for a dramatic effect.

Note: The sound is actually quite different for the sound of Phoebe's empathy. The sound they showed could simply be Phoebe's intuition power at work as during that episode she did have her premonition powers back.

Phoebe regains her empathy power back in the third issue, Innocents Lost, which takes place eighteen months after Forever Charmed. She regained it through the couple Romeo and Juliet while she was at work.

Empathic High-Resistance
Empaths possess this ability through their Empathy gift. This allows them to survive attacks by weapons and various powers, (including their own) and magic from other magical beings...etc Witchs, Valkaries and Demons. Phoebe has this power, it causes her to be resistant to powers such as Fire balls and other lethal powers. Before Phoebe became on Empath she possessed a limited form of this power which was usually actived when she is in unity with her sisters. However, after Phoebe gained her Empathy power she also gained a much stronger version of this power than her sisters, due to her Empathic ability. Through Empathy she has a high resistance to any power that she is channeling. When she was fighting Piper in Vahalla, she was able to withstand Piper's telekinetic attacks, three in total. Infact they barely had any effect on her, unlike Paige whom Piper flown aside with just one wave of her hand ("Valhalley of the Dolls" Part 2).

To Release an Empath from his Gift

 * Free the Empath,
 * Release his gift,
 * Let his pain be cast adrift.


 * It is important that when casting the spell there is no physical contact with the Empath as the power will transfer in the caster of the spell ("Primrose Empath").

To Revive a Cut-off Feeling via Empathy

 * Open (name)'s heart to reveal,
 * That part which only (name) feels,
 * Send it back from whence it came,
 * But don't protect her from the pain.

List of Users

 * Phoebe Halliwell
 * Aphrodite
 * Cupids (with charges, limited form)
 * Vinceres under the influence of a real empath's power
 * Prue Halliwell under the influence of a spell
 * Mitzy Stillman (stolen from Phoebe)
 * Elders (with charges, limited form)
 * Whitelighters (with charges, limited form)
 * Cole Turner (through a spell)
 * Father Thomas (formerly)