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. Empathy can drive anyone crazy if they were not meant to receive or control it. Magical beings' powers are tied to their emotions, so empaths can channel them through empathy (so as Telepathy). But as Charmed shows it, there is a difference between empathy-channeling to telepathy-channeling: empathy-channeling works more to deflecting the powers of others (so as energy balls, telekinesis, etc) but telepathy-channeling is more to use and control those powers (so as seen by Zachary).

Season 3
The power is first seen in the season 3 episode "Primrose Empath". Prue took 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 its 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 demon Vinceres.

Emotions
All powers throughout Charmed are tied with the characters' emotions. With the power of 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.

Phoebe's third power
thumb|300px|right|A video about empathy.In "Valhalley of the Dolls Part 1, Phoebe Halliwell develops this as her third and last power. This remains so until she loses her active powers (premonition, levitation, empathy) for abusing her abilities. 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 may possibly indicate that she regained her empathy much earlier than thought. But as she never displays it again, 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 nineteen months after Forever Charmed.

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

List of users

 * Father Thomas
 * Phoebe Halliwell
 * Cupids (with charges, limited form)
 * Aphrodite
 * Vinceres under the influence of a real empath's power
 * Prue 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)