Empathy

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

Application
There are many ways to use Empathy:


 * Promote interpersonal understanding.
 * Discover other people's true intent and desires as well as any secrets that their trying to hide.
 * Access people's thoughts via their emotions.
 * Control and even deflect other people's powers.
 * Duplicate the powers of those near or around you.
 * Resist the effects of another persons power.
 * Strengthen as well as evolved your other powers.
 * Heal and guide other people emotionally/mentally.
 * Curse a demon by granting it your power.

Strength and Skill
The strength of Empathy varies depending on the strength and skill of the user. Phoebe Halliwell channels her power through her eyes, often by narrowing and focusing her eyes on her intended target.

She quickly mastered the ability to read and interpret emotions correctly, allowing her to discern the truth and uncover hidden secrets, including a persons true intent as well as their desire. The growth of her power in strength and range, allows her to sense and maintain contact with people within a city wide distance, as well as in between dimensions.

The second and most powerful skill Phoebe mastered is the ability to access the powers of the people around her with a simple look. She can take control of incoming projectile as well as deflect them and can even resist there effects when hit, simply by maintaining an emotional connection with her target. She can even duplicate the powers of the people around her. When Prue Halliwell gained the empathy power from Father Thomas. She gained three skills within the power, the ability to read emotion, healing emotional pain and the ability to augmentation her power. However, Prue was only able to use two of them. She could read and correctly interpret other peoples emotions from miles away as well as greatly enhance her other powers, by channeled all the incoming emotions into them.

Reading Emotions
The first aspect of the power is to read as well as to experience others emotions. However, Whitelighters can only physically experience the emotions of their charges.

Phoebe can read and feel the emotions of every living being, including animals (ie) dragons and even ghosts. Begins with malevolent intent are usually worried when they are around her, because she's able to correctly interpret the intent as well as the desire behind each emotion and can find out any secrets that they are trying to keep hidden. Prue could hear people's thoughts while reading emotions.

Power Manipulation


The next aspect, after learning to read emotions, is using Empathy to manipulate other's powers, which is composed of three—and arguably the most powerful—variations of the power; Channeling, Replicating and Resisting powers. As long as the connection is maintained channeled powers will be rendered ineffective when used against you. Replicating the effects of spells is possible as it's a basic witch power.

Powers are tied to emotions; manipulating powers through empathy works by feeling the same emotion that others feel, and then accessing their powers. Phoebe is skilled in this aspect, it's also one of primary defensive moves.

Empathic Healing


Another aspect of the power is the ability to heal emotional wounds. Empaths 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. Phoebe, as an advice columnist, uses her gift to help the people who writes to her. Her powers helps her to 'read people really well', so she's able to give them helpful and insightful advice.

Aside from counseling, Immortal Empaths can also heal emotional suffering akin to Whitelighters healing physical wounds. Father Thomas indicated he focused his empathic powers through his hands to heal the emotional anguish of his parishioners. He used this same method to curse Vinceres.

Augmentation


A rare aspect of Empathy, is the ability to increase the strength of your own powers, by channeling a massive amount of emotions into them, which will enhance your powers and make you stronger. This aspect was used by Prue Halliwell who had temporarily gained the gift.

Her Telekinesis power advanced to a point were Vinceres, a demon who was immune to witches magic, was no longer immune to it. It also allowed her to perform gravity defying maneuvers. She even manage to evolved her power of Astral Projection into Cloning.

Limitations
This power has a few limitation; these are:


 * In the early stages the power can be very uncontrollable.
 * Users can be overwhelmed by the emotions and feel compelled to act them out. However, once they embrace the power they will be able to turn it on or off at will.
 * On rare occasions you may not be able to read anothers emotions, as seen with Cal Greene.
 * Phoebe has to be within the vicinity of the person, who's powers she want to control as well as duplicate.
 * The power can be blocked with an empathy blocking potion. However, the effects of the potion is temporary.

Power developed from Empathy


This power is an advanced form of Empathy. It is the ability to manifest and channel emotions through the hands, to create 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 extremely powerful magical beings thought impossible to be defeated. She used this power on the powerful witch Neena, magnifying her emotions until she was knocked unconcious. It is one of the strongest powers of a Charmed One.

Insanity and Demons


"I'm afraid that your 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's a psychic ability, which requires the user to be mentally strong. Demons can never gain this power naturally, due to the fact that they can't handle human emotions. It would destroy them or eventually drive them insane, as it drove the powerful demon Vinceres to insanity, 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 it's range expanded, she was unable to control it developing to the point where she was constantly taking in the emotions of the entire city. However, Father Thomas taught her how to control the power.

She then channeled all the incoming emotions into her other powers, which greatly enhanced them, and then used them to destroy the once thought invincible demon Vinceres. However, while Prue eventually learned to control it, immediately after the battle, the power left her, 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").