Empathy

Empathy is the ability to experience the emotions of others without direct contact with them, you feel exactly what one is feeling and for the same reasons. It can be channeled through the hands or eyes, the latter being the most common way to use the power.

This power is very versatile and vast in nature, with many abilities stemming from it. The Wielder would be extremely formidable, which may be why Phoebe and Prue (for a short-time) while both empaths, have only shown aspects of the power but never it's entirety.

Trigger
Usually, in the early stages of gaining this power, it's very uncontrollable and most users receive empathic vibes automatically. They can be overwhelmed by the emotions they are feeling and feel compelled to act them out. As the users embrace this gift, they will gain more control over it and will be able to turn it on or off at will. If the empathic energy is strong enough, users will automatically get a empathic hit, overriding their control and will. Phoebe meditates to control this power.

Reading Emotions
Users merely activate their power an concentrate on the mortals, magical being or even creatures (ie) dragons and read the emotions. Users will be able to read the intent or desire behind the emotions and know what the person want or desire. Other begins with malevolent intent might worried when they are around empathic begins; due to the fact that the users can find out any secrets that being hidden.

Users can read and sense emotions from different planes of existence and depending on the strength of the emotions, great distances. Users can also use emotions to escape alternate realities created by desires. Depending on the strength of the empathy power, the users can both hear and feel people's emotions, like a telepath. As this power grow stronger, users will be able to sense and read emotions from vast distances.

The only way to block users from reading your emotions is with an empathy blocking potion. Chris and the sisters used a potion to temporarily block their emotions. Mordaunt (unseen) found a way to block his feelings and in-effect his true intentions from being readed, either by using a spell or potion. Cal Greene didn't take anything to block the power, but his feeling still could not be read.

Empathic Healing
"They use their sensitivity to guide mortals, ease their pain, even heal them."

- Leo telling the sisters about Empaths.

Empaths have a unique healing ability. They are said to be able to use their power to heal people, by using their intimate knowledge of what the person is feeling or has gone through and offering them advice or comfort. They may also possess the whitelighter form of healing, to heal physical wounds with their hands. Father Thomas told the sisters that he tricked Vinceres, by laying his hands on him as if to heal him, but gave him his powers instead.

Channeling Powers


Magical beings' powers are tied to their emotions and powerful empaths can channel them through empathy (such as Telepathy). Channeling powers through empathy works by feeling the same emotion that others feel, and then accessing their powers to deflect them, or temporarily use them as if they have copied the power. Users can channel powers through their hands or with the power of their mind. This is the most powerful ability stemming from this power.

High Resistance through Empathy


Powerful users have this ability, it causes them to be resistant to lethal powers from other magical beings. This power is activated whenever the user channels a power. The channeled power will have next to no affect on them.

As one of the most powerful witches in the world, Phoebe had a limited form of this power. However, with empathy she gained a much stronger version of it. Through her gift she has a high resistance to any power that she is channeling. This is one of the most useful ability stemming from the power of empathy.

Power Augmentation through Empathy


Powerful users can give themselves a power boost. Since all powers are tied with emotions, a user can amplify their own powers by channeling a massive amount of emotions into them, making their powers and themselves more powerful.

Prue Halliwell displayed this ability after she temporarily gained the gift. Her telekinetic powers evolved allowing her to perform gravity-defying maneuvers and spectacular martial-arts feats. Her power of astral projection also evolved into Cloning. This is one of the most highly desirable ability stemming from the power empathy.

Strength and Control
This power has been shown having varying strength, depending on the user. As a person grows stronger their empathic range will expand. However, having a greater strength and control of this power is usually developed by empath's born with the gift and those destined to have it.

Phoebe, a destined empath, has shown that her empathic gift is very strong. while at home, she felt a large empathic burst of pain and fear from people within the city, who were being attacked by a dragon. While confronting the dragon, she used her power read the creatures emotions.

Later, she used it to sense and feel her sister Piper, who was on a different plane of existence, the ghostly plane. She also mentioned that she would be able to sense if her sister was dead, even if she wasn't there or even on the same plane. Phoebe is the only witch with this power that use it to control and replicate other people's powers. As her power grows stronger she will be able to wield this power to it's fullest.

Insanity and Demons
This power 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. 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.

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.


 * (Empathy and the method of Pathokinesis were both used to get Piper to feel again. Phoebe channelled Piper's emotions through empathy, which then allowed Paige to use her spell to project/send the emotions back onto Piper.

Notes on Empathy

 * Chris revealed that there is a potion to block an empath from reading them. The potion is hard to make since it requires a Kotochul egg which can be found in Swamp Land ("Love's a Witch").
 * This power can be used in a Defensive and Supportive capacity.
 * Phoebe is the only known person to develope the evolved form of this power, Advanced Empathy.
 * Two sound effects were used for Phoebe's Empathy. A light jingle sound was usually used, however in "Used Karma" a much louder ringing sound is used when she uses it to channel powers.
 * Emily is a two years old student at magic school. She is a psychic possible with the power of Empathy or Telepathy. She used her Psychic powers to tap into Wyatt Halliwell powers, presumable Telekinetic Orbing and steal his play-doh.