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The term empathy has been used to refer to two related human abilities: mental perspective taking (cognitive empathy) and the vicarious sharing of emotion (emotional empathy). Many psychic claimants seem to act more empathie than telepathic. Five specific hypotheses were tested here: People who have telepathic experiences, aura experiences, sense of presence, experience as psychic healers, and apparitional experiences have a higher capacity for (1) Perspective Taking and Emotional Comprehension (Cognitive empathy) and (2) Empathie Concern and Positive Empathy (Emotional empathy) than non-experients. The participants were 634 adults. Results showed that paranormal/anomalous experients scored higher on Perspective Taking, Emotional Comprehension, Empathie Concern, Positive Empathy and Empathy (total score) than non-experients. Future studies should examine other variables associated with empathy.
The term empathy refers to sensitivity to, and understanding of, the mental states of others. According to Hogan (1969, p. 308), empathy is "the act of constructing for oneself another person's mental state." The term empathy has been used to refer to two related human abilities: mental perspective taking (cognitive empathy) and the vicarious sharing of emotion (emotional empathy).
Recent research into empathy has emphasized the distinction between the cognitive and emotional components of the construct (Preston & de Waal, 2002). These components assume various definitions. Put simply, however, emotional empathy is commonly regarded as an emotional reaction (e.g., compassion) to another's emotional response (e.g., sadness). This reaction is not dependent on a cognitive understanding of why a person is suffering (Rankin, Kramer, & Miller, 2005), although it may facilitate understanding and action. By contrast, cognitive empathy involves an intellectual or imaginative understanding of another's emotional state, often described as overlapping with the construct of theory of mind (understanding the thoughts and feelings of others) and used interchangeably by some authors (Lawrence, Shaw, Baker, Baron- Cohen, & David, 2004).
There are few studies on empathy in relation to psychic experiences. There are a number of paranormal/anomalous experiences which seem to be related -even sometimes confused with- empathy. These experiences seem to involve inter-personal traits (i.e., extrasensorial experiences) instead of "intra"-personal characteristics such as out-of-body experiences, premonitions, past-lives recall, or mystical experiences. Many psychic claimants seem to act more empathie than telepathic.
Sanchez (1989) examined empathy and telepathy in natural mother- daughter dyads, consisting of 180...