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An estimated one in 20 Americans has a natural talent for perceptiveness. Could you be one of them? Usually they are unskilled empaths, which means they suffer from such problems as emotional instability, apparent co-dependence, low self-esteem, or hypochondria. Rose Rosetree’s seventh book, Empowered by Empathy, explains how to improve the quality of life by turning off unwanted empathy.

Her how-to techniques also demonstrate how to turn empathy on. At will. Bigger than ever before. Interspersed with her teaching, Rosetree describes elusive spiritual travels that are sometimes humorous, sometimes moving, and consistently mind-boggling.

The cover, for instance, demonstrates "I Want to Hold Your Hand," an outrageously simple method to move an empath’s conscious awareness into the physical body of a consenting partner. An example of one of Rosetree’s wild but true anecdotes? Read how she inadvertently outed a spy--see page 134.

Yes, you can learn to experience vividly, from the inside, what it is like to be another person. The author, a teacher of personal development since 1971, has tested these techniques. Use them and they will alter your reality (for the better).

Rosetree’s pioneering discoveries will also revolutionize how you understand empathy. You’ll learn why it happens and how it goes far beyond "Emotional Intelligence" or "sympathy." True empathy, you’ll discover, comes in many varieties, including physical, intellectual, spiritual, and emotional gifts. Although an increasing number of authors today discuss empathy, Rosetree is the one who will satisfy you if you’re really an empath. The depth and scope of her work will bring you relief. Yes, relief is not too strong a word for the rare chance to meet a skilled empath who understands your gifts and can teach you how to make them work for you.

Could you be an empath? Three tests near the start of the book will help you find out. Then you’ll learn Rosetree’s 25 ways to Fly in Spirit. Plus a great deal more. Pay special attention to the chapter on "Grounding," with its insights into smoking, weight-loss, and more -- counter-culture but absolutely on target.

And, as always with any book by Rosetree, you’re in for a treat. Between the covers of Empowered by Empathy you’ll find powerful words, directed with caring intent, and sparkling with Rosetree’s honesty, insight, surprises, and irrepressible humor.

America’s first book ever for empaths can empower you to be of greater service to others. With less suffering and more skill. Consider yourself invited. As Rosetree writes in her dedication:

"Because you move as an empath,
you are an awakener,
not only through the skills that you cherish
but in all the ways that you serve, bringing light to this world on a silver (though invisible) platter....

"Awaken to the mystery of all you can know
and all that you share,
for our world, like you, is ready to break wide open
and show forth the full joy of God."

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part One: Empathy 101
Empathy on Purpose
Skeptical Interlude
Your Empathic Gifts
Service with a Smile -- or a Frown

Part Two: Switch on Empathy
Naked and Glorious
How Do You Speak Empathy?
Plug in, Switch on
Travel Techniques
And There’s More

Part Three: Lifestyle Matters
The Lifestyle You Deserve
How to Parent an Empath
Grounding
The Power of Empathy

Annotated Bibliography
Index

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AUTHOR COMMENTS

If I was born to do one thing, it was to write this book. My life experience, education, gifts, pain, healing, teaching, inspiration, and greatest delight--all are to be found in this book. I wrote it during three months of bliss, then spent three years of slog, doing edits so the book would be as easy for you to read as it was for me to write. ;-)

Recently I’ve done newspaper interviews far from my home in Sterling, Virginia, using my empathic techniques to give insights about total strangers who are locally well known politicians; the accuracy of the techniques in this book is mirrored by the glee of reporters, as in: "Rose Rosetree can spot a potential fibber a mile away. Or, in this case, 2,400 miles away."

Yes, it is definitely possible for a skilled empath to enter into another person’s experience through something as simple as a jpeg photo on the Internet. The amount of quality information you can receive is enormous. My students have had success with the techniques in this book and you can, too.

As a teacher, I don’t travel much since my son is young and our family close, but I do teach adult education classes in public schools in Fairfax County, Virginia. Response to these classes has been so enthusiastic that in January 2001 the county will start to offer Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for them, meaning that teachers, psychotherapists, nurses, massage therapists, and others can receive credit towards their ongoing professional development.

Not only is this a first for Fairfax County, offering CEUs for personal development courses. It’s a first for empaths. Usually our "professional development " does not coincide with formal academic training. When I dream about the impact of Empowered by Empathy, I envision a future where institutions of higher learning truly teach higher learning. Which would include showing born empaths the use of intuition and Celestial Perception.

Meanwhile, in case you’ve noticed, we’re not there yet. And you, as a skilled empath, can help bring us there.

How will we know when we’ve arrived? One way I’ll know it is when people can handle the name of the publishing company responsible for this book, Women’s Intuition Worldwide. Fairly often, so far, people call up and say, "Hello, is this Women’s Institution?"

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FROM THE BACK COVER

Another multi-faceted miracle from Rose Rosetree: practical, simple, methodical, compassionate, funny, and absolutely thorough. You’ll use it again and again.
--Susun S. Weed, Author, Healing Wise - and a Physical Empath

Empowered by Empathy speaks to me as a psychologist, a spiritual teacher, an artist, a husband, a lover of life. The chapter on "Grounding," alone, makes the book worth buying, and there is so much more.
--Ron Scolastico, Ph.D., Author, Doorway to the Soul -- and an Intellectual Empath

Rose Rosetree is a fountain of joyful spiritual wisdom. We can all benefit from her positive insight.
--David Lawson, Author, A Company of Angels -- and a Spiritual Empath

Even for those of us who aren’t New Agers, Rose Rosetree has written a fine, fascinating book: clear, insightful, and packed with easy-to-follow techniques.
--Marguerite Kelly, Author, The Mother’s Almanac -- and an Emotional Empath

Rose Rosetree’s book lovingly invites us to own our natural gifts, to rise to the awesome task of being who we are more consciously, and to accept our empathic nature as a powerful tool for living. Rose’s teachings reflect her uncanny ability to jump start our own powerful empathic spirits.
--Bill Bauman, Ph.D., Author, Oneness -- and an Intellectual Empath

Prepublication Reviews on Book Jacket, Empowered by Empathy

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BOOK REVIEW

by C. Appel

published June 2001 in Fearless Reviews

I can’t deny it; I was a bit skeptical about this book at first glance. But upon delving deeper, I found Rose Rosetree’s work to be an enlightening and thorough guidebook for empaths.

And just who is an empath? What are the differences between Physical Intuition and Physical Oneness, Emotional Intuition and Emotional Oneness? Why do empaths need to practice “grounding” techniques? The answers to such questions, as well as exercises to help develop awareness of empathy can all be found here. Ms. Rosetree’s easy way of putting into words concepts that I had been vaguely aware of — but never thought there was any way of quantifying or describing — is very refreshing. By sharing her own personal experiences with empathy she demonstrates that you, too, can recognize your own empathic gifts and learn to use them as tools to build a more balanced and joyful life.

BOOK REVIEW

by Cynthia Yockey

published in Pathways Magazine

If you are aware that your empathy -- whether for people, animals, the environment, or whatever – overwhelms you from time to time, by showing you how to harness your ability so it does not run off with you, Rose Rosetree’s latest book, Empowered by Empathy: 25 Ways to Fly in Spirit, could save your life. Definitely it will provide you with the knowledge you need to understand and unfold your gift.

Even if you believe you are a very advanced empath, I assure you that Rosetree has a thing or three to add that not only will accelerate the growth of your abilities, but also increase your stability and joy in the process.

And perhaps best of all, Rosetree’s book gently and skillfully guides those who simply feel drawn to the concept of empathy through the underlying concepts of recognizing their own empathic strengths and then provides exercises to help them unfold their abilities.

In a nutshell, Empowered by Empathy describes ethical ways to connect with others while maintaining your own boundaries and staying grounded. Miracles ensue, as I shall explain.

If Empowered by Empathy were a pop psych book, it would plod through types of people and describe how to recognize each one, with tips on how to cope with each type as a spouse, child, boss or employee. Instead, startlingly and delightfully, Rosetree begins by turning the telescope around and defining types of empaths (!). With guidelines and little tests, she helps the reader sort out his or her own type(s) of empathy to very fine, very real, and very important levels of distinction.

For example, in the chapter, "Your Gifts for Empathy," Rosetree distinguishes between "intuition" and "oneness." Thus there isn't a broad category of "physical empathy;" instead Rose explains that the "physical intuition" form of empathy involves knowing what someone else's body is feeling, while "physical oneness" is feeling their feelings in your body (i.e., when you put your attention on someone with a stomach ache, you feel your stomach start to hurt).

Obviously it can be crazy-making to have feelings flood into you from others with no conceptual framework or "off" button, so many readers will find enormous validation in having their experiences explained to them, probably for the first time. And more readers will find the validation of knowing for the first time that others share their experiences. They will gain the confidence to see more powerfully what they have already been seeing. For example, one "aha!" came for me when Rosetree described how the faces of people and animals change in your perception as you come to know them. I have known this for a long time, but it never occurred to me to say much about it because no one else seemed to notice the phenomenon. Now I feel certain I will be able to see even more deeply into how this is so.

Rosetree explains both common and rare types of empathy along with ways to recognize which of these abilities match yours. Common types of empathy include physical intuition, physical oneness, emotional intuition and emotional oneness. Less common are intellectual shape shifting, the ability "to follow the maze" of someone else's thought process, and spiritual oneness, the ability to experience how it is to be a completely different person. (I'd like to see "intellectual shape shifting" get a more accurate name consistent with the others, like "intellectual intuition.")

Rare forms of empathy are molecular empathy (too hard to summarize), animal empathy, medical intuitives, gardening empaths, crystal empaths, and environmental empaths.

In another surprising turnaround, rather than diving straight into exercises to develop empathy, Rosetree first wisely establishes the reader in the skill of how to turn off the tap. But think about it: when the horse is already running away with you from too much giddyap, isn't learning to say "whoa" your top priority?

I did mention that miracles can follow from empathy, so here is the one that happened to me. My mother has a host of qualities that could have induced even the late Mother Teresa to push her off a cliff without remorse. I'm pretty sure that the only thing worse than being empathically connected to her for 47 years has been to be her for 77 years.

Mother was scheduled to have angioplasty the day before my deadline for this review. The evening was my turn in the family to sit with her at the hospital and I had only read half of Rosetree's book, so I brought it along. I was seldom able to finish a page without some kind of interruption from my mother. I dealt with each one as kindly as I could and my attention swung smoothly back and forth between my mother and Rosetree's articulate explanations. I didn't expect anything from my mother but petulance and selfishness, and frankly, there was plenty of it.

So here's the miracle. First I became aware how very hard my mother was clinging to me emotionally to stabilize her in her pain and fright and that what I was doing for her was the technique described in the book as "Holding a Space." With the ability to keep the distinction inside between the two of us, I was able to hold her at the heart level and give her comfort and support.

Then, through her pain and dementia and hard, selfish shell, came the miracles, not all at once, but over the course of the eight hours I sat with her through the night. She told me she appreciated me. She boasted to her nurse that I was a writer and a genius. She told me that she knew I would be successful and rich one day soon. And when I left, she gave me the only heartfelt hug I remember receiving from her in my entire life.

Who knew a book that gave you the ability to have empathy while keeping your boundaries could produce in your life the emotional equivalent of the end of the Ice Age?

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AUTHOR BIO

Rose Rosetree pioneers techniques for using deeper perception in everyday life. Media interviews have brought this award-winning teacher’s work to Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia. In America, she’s been featured in USA Today, The Washington Post, Ladies Home Journal, Redbook, The Catholic Standard, and Country Weekly. Her appearance on ABC’s "The View" was the top-rated segment for the week of March 29 - April 2, 1999.

This book complements Rose’s how-to books, especially Aura Reading Through ALL Your Senses.

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ABOUT THE BOOK

Body Language (along with facial expression) represents the most obvious level for reading people. If you’re really good at this, you’re already starting to drift and shift from Hidden Layer #1 into reading the deeper layers. Here’s a summary of the other layers Rose’s publications can help you to open up, culminating in Empowered by Empathy.

Hidden Layer #2 is Face Reading, where you look at the physical face to learn about character. For thousands of years, face detectives have investigated how character shows in the shapes and angles of the physical face. Rose’s system of Face Reading Secrets ® will clue you in to a wealth of data at this level. You’ll find it in The Power of Face Reading.

Hidden Layer #3 involves noticing people in an intuitive way. One minute you’ll be watching Body Language or Face Reading and zap!, you’ll become aware of something much deeper. For instance, it dawns on you that the man you’re watching is happy or frightened or lying like crazy. You see/feel/know this even though his Body Language reveals nothing of the kind. If anything, he has learned to use Body Language to hide it.

Well, instead of thinking that you need to learn more little tips about Body Language, here’s a what if. What if Body Language serves as a mask at least as often as it reveals an inner secret? This happens to be true. If this frustrates you, maybe it’s time to start reading Hidden Layer #3, auras -- the human energy field.

Auras have far more to them than the popular notion of "seeing the colors." It’s a spiritual level that reveals deep human secrets. And you need not be a certified mystic to read them, just someone who is curious and willing to learn something genuinely new.

Aura Reading Through ALL Your Senses can help you to appreciate spiritual gifts that you’ve had your whole life, but probably not used yet in a conscious way. Exciting thought, isn’t it? That means your people watching skills could quickly become far deeper and more rewarding. Consider becoming an aura reader with the 100+ innovative techniques presented in this book.

To enliven your readings of Hidden Layer #3, an exciting supplement is Rosetree’s how-to video, "Thrill Your Soul: Inspiration for Choosing Your Work and Relationships."

But, for the truly adventurous, there’s one final frontier. Hidden Layer #4 is Empathy, where you find yourself aware of what it is like to BE the person you’re studying. Like Aura Reading, true empathy is spiritual and subtle... you’ll find yourself slipping into it as easily as Cinderella fit into her glass slipper. Because of Rosetree’s pioneering work with training skilled empaths, Empowered by Empathy stands out as America’s first book for empaths.

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HIGHLIGHTS FOR BROWSERS

An unexpected benefit of hot flashes.  Pg. 299

Trying on the physical experience of someone of the opposite sex.  Pg. 199

The limits of sympathy compared to genuine empathy. Pg. 39