Empathy

Empathy is the ability to feel and interpret other people's feelings and emotions. A user of this ability can feel exactly what another person is feeling, and for the same reasons, without direct contact with them.

Usage
There are many ways to utilize Empathy:


 * Discover other people's true intents, desires and any secrets that they are trying to hide.
 * Feel the emotion—pain—of ones charge.
 * Hear emotionally charged discussions by feeling the heightened emotions behind the words.
 * Control and even deflect other people's powers.
 * Duplicate the powers of those around you.
 * Resist the effects of another person's power.
 * Enhance as well as evolve your other powers.
 * Guide and heal their charge emotional wounds.

Feeling Emotions
The first and main purpose of the power used to psychically feel what other people mentally and physically feel, and to correctly interpret those feelings.

Phoebe can feel and interpret the emotions of every living creature, which includes animals and even spirits. As such, beings with malevolent intent are usually worried when they are around her because she can correctly interpret the intent as well as the desire behind each emotion, and could find out any secrets that they are trying to keep hidden.

Clairaudience


A unique aspect that allows the wielder to hear what people outside natural hearing range are saying inside one’s mind, while channeling their emotions.

However, this constant flow of emotions in one's heart and voices in one's head is what will drive a human not meant for the gift insane.

During Prue Halliwell’s brief time as an empath, she was able to hear the arguments people were having all over the city. This was due to her Empathy picking up on the intense emotion behind the angry words people were shouting.

Variations of Empathy
To use any of the skills within this power, the possessor most first establish and maintain a empathic bond with his/her intended target. The power gives the possessor access to nearly everything connected to emotions.

Empathic Healing


A variant used to heal emotional wounds by using ones intimate knowledge of what the other person is feeling or has gone through, and then offering them advice/comfort.

Phoebe, as an advice columnist, uses her gift to help the people who write to her. She answers their letters through her column, giving them helpful and insightful advice.

Aside from counseling, immortal Empaths can also heal emotional suffering, akin to Whitelighters healing physical wounds. Father Thomas used his hands to heal the emotional anguish of his parishioners.

Power Manipulation


A variation of Empathy used to manipulate the powers of others, which is composed of three—and arguably the most powerful—variations of the power; Channeling, Replicating and Resisting powers. It may also be possible to replicate the effects of spells as it's a basic magical power.

All supernatural powers are tied to emotions; to manipulate powers one must first establish and maintain a emotional connection with another person, and then access their powers. Phoebe is particularly skilled in this area, which is also one of her primary defensive and offensive moves.

Augmentation


A variation of Empathy used to dramatically enhance your own powers by channeling a massive amount of emotions into them, making you much stronger than usual. Prue used this variation during her brief time as an empath.

Her power of Telekinesis advanced to a point where Vinceres, a demon who was immune to witchcraft, became vulnerable to it, and even allowed her to perform gravity-defying maneuvers so that she could meet Vinceres blow for blow in classic hand-to-hand combat. Her power of Astral Projection also evolved into Cloning.

Strength
The strength of Phoebe Halliwell's ability to feel other people's emotions can on occasion allow her to feel the emotions of people within a city wide distance, as well as in between dimensions.

She can also used Power Channeling to deflect the powers of multiple individuals at once and use Power Replication to withstand powers like Telekinesis while replicating it.

During Prue Halliwell's brief time as an empath, she was able to feel other people's emotions from miles away, and could enhance her own powers to far superior levels by channeling emotions into them.

Limitations
This power has a few limitation; these are:
 * Other people's emotions may give a user headaches.
 * A inexperience user can get overwhelmed with emotions and even feel compelled to act them out.
 * On occasion users may not be able to feel emotions from others. When Phoebe first met Cal Greene she could not feel any emotion from him.
 * Users have to be near the person whose powers they want deflect or duplicate.
 * The power can be blocked with an empathy blocking potion. The effects of the potion is temporary.
 * Some users can only feel their charges emotions.

Power developed from Empathy


An evolved variation of Empathy used to feel other people's emotions and then project it through the hands: creating a psychic blast made purely of emotions. The effects generate energy sparks which resemble Lightning Bolts.

Phoebe is the only known being with this power. With it, she is capable of vanquishing, or severely incapacitating even supremely powerful magical beings thought impossible to be defeated. She used this power on the first witch, Neena: projected back her emotions until she was knocked unconscious. It is one of Phoebe's strongest powers.

Insanity and Demons
"I'm afraid that you're in danger, you weren't meant to receive this gift. You can't handle it."

- Leo expressing concern for Prue.

Empathy can drive a person to insanity if they are not destined to have it, as it is a psychic ability that requires the user to be mentally strong. Demons can never gain this power naturally, due to the fact that they cannot handle human emotions. It would destroy them or drive them insane, as it drove the demon Vinceres almost insane, but shortly after it was taken away, he returned to normal.

Prue accidentally received this power from Vinceres through the use of a spell. Although she was fine with it at first, eventually, as its range expanded, she was unable to control it developing to the point where she was constantly taking in the emotions and noise of the entire city of San Francisco. However, Father Thomas taught her how to control the power.

She quickly learned and mastered the ability to channel all the incoming emotions into her other powers, which significantly enhanced them, and then used them to destroy the once thought-invincible demon, Vinceres. However, while Prue eventually learned to control it, the power left her immediately after the battle as she was never meant to have it.

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").