22. Empathy - A Neglected Psychic Power

Empathy is a powerful emotion we are encouraged to use and strengthen by the urgings of our own conscience and by our sense of interconnectedness. It is not something that needs to be taught directly nor can it be taught. The best we can do to instil empathy in children and in each other is to employ it ourselves, in our thoughts and in our treatment of life beyond the limits of Self. Empathy cannot be compared or judged. In fact, if we decide that someone else lacks empathy, we are doing little more than failing to have enough empathy ourselves!

“Life can only be understood backwards....it must be lived forwards.”

Søren Kierkegaard

We cannot be the actor and watch the play at the same time, any more than empathy can be extended and viewed simultaneously. By its very nature, empathy is an out-flowing emotion, filled with the spirit of equality or “oneness”. If we are trying to catch a glimpse of our own power, we are “not all there” in the outflow, and empathy is shut off at the source, becoming a mere shell of mannerisms. Suddenly this potential union* becomes a craft of separation; the “coming together” becomes the “moving apart”.

Developing our empathic power isn't a means to an end (a way to regard our own power etc.). Engaging empathy is an end in itself, for in our full, unadulterated desire for others' peace of mind, regardless of how we might be judged, we already exist within a place of strength, though we may not recognize it at the time. When someone relates to us empathically (or empathetically), we are subtly aware that its awesome power and strength lies in its connection. This power is not exerted over us. It is not an emotion of division or judgment, ego or Self. It lies within the letting go of ego, and in the broadening of our views to include the well-being of others. Empathy is a magnificent power that invites us to put Self aside and to see life and each other in a strong and accepting way.

"A suitable explanation or a comforting word to the patient may have something like a healing effect which may even influence the glandular secretions. The doctor's words, to be sure, are “only” vibrations in the air, yet they constitute a particular set of vibrations corresponding to a particular psychic state in the doctor. The words are effective only insofar as they convey a meaning or have significance. It is their meaning which is effective. But “meaning” is something mental or spiritual. Call it a fiction if you like. Nonetheless, it enables us to influence the course of disease in a far (more) effective way than with chemical preparations. We can even influence the biochemical processes of the body by it. Whether the fiction rises in me spontaneously or reaches me from without by the way of human speech, it can make me ill or cure me.” Carl Jung

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