[Jungian Cognitive Functions] XNFPs and Knowing the "Essence" of People

[finalcount]

I'm very interested in how these two types in particular have intuitive feelings about the essence or core of people. How does it work, exactly? What is it about Ne-Fi/Fi-Ne that lends itself to being so good at this? Is there a difference as to how INFPs and ENFPs approach this? Can you sense the essence of everyone you come in contact with, or it it just family/good friends? How about acquaintances?

 

[Ginkgo]

We can tell if someone's dead just by checking their pulse.

 

[purple tuesday]

Usually I can get a feel for what people are like the first time I meet them by their facial expressions, tone of voice, and language. I think this is how it works: Ne working through Fi takes in the previously listed features and emotions, makes connections, and paints a picture of the person. The accuracy of the picture improves after being around the person more, but is usually pretty accurate after the first meeting.
But maybe this isn't what you meant by "essence?" Do you mean just knowing someone very well and being able to guess how they will act in the future?

 

[unityemissions]

It's pretty crazy, but I can't fully explain it. Sometimes I look at someone and in an instant have a pretty good idea of what their life has been like up to this point, and how it will unfold in the future.

Some people are more difficult to read, though, and it takes time. The most difficult to read are sociopaths. That's why I find them so fascinating!

 

[Amargith]

What type are you, my dear?

 

[Lady_X]

I'm not aware of it happening but it's as tho we absorb some feeling sense of who they are at the core. Their deepest values and the place they are speaking from.

I have even had instances where I get some odd flash type of thing when I see someone. Like this woman at the store the other day... A flash of her yelling at and spanking a child... Just sort of viciously... My boyfriend and I pass by her at the store and He mentions how mean she looks and I told him the flash I had and he said it happens to him too. He also saw her yelling... Just all red in the face and full of hate.

I don't know what that is.

 

[unityemissions]

Yep, Lady, I get the exact same. What type is your BF?

Sometimes it's a simple flash which encodes a likely scenario, and other times it's a complex flash that gives me more of a life review of the individual.

 

[Lady_X]

Whoa you do!? What is that!? He's an infp!

I get them all the time it's like just a visual that's meant to express their character or something I guess. A glimpse. It's weird. I don't even think what we're seeing is a real moment. It's more just like a feeling impression that comes to us visually if that makes sense.

 

[unityemissions]

It's "psychic" abilities, though really I take it to be nothing more than highly developed Fi-SI & Ne-Te

When it's a simple flash, I don't get too moved by it. When it's a complex flash, I usually literally jump a bit as if a bolt of lightning just flew down my spine

It can be quite the overwhelming experience, tbh. Just depends on how dark/complex the intuitions are.

 

[Amargith]

I don't get visual flashes, though the energy of the person often indicates their personality. I see..colours and sense emotions in people. Troubled people for instance have like a thundercloud type of grey around them. Manipulating people have often this icky red-brown feeling. People in pain make me feel pain as well. Things like that. Aside from that, certain types of behavior give me insight into the trauma they've been through in the past. I guess the flashes happen here, for me. That combined with the color thing can occasionally give me an insight into who they are a person and what made them so

There is also an intensity and freshness to colors that are a temporary or new state of being surrounding the person and a stained, matte, almost worn out feeling to those that are permanent. Kind of like clothes that have been worn past their prime. As for behaviors, they act like bread crumbs for my radar. I have a kind of..radar type thingy, blinking in the areas where peoples personal pain is hidden. I often don't know what it is, but I can gauge the size and depth of the wound.

Edit: As for how close one has to be: the more time you have to actually observe them and probe them, the more detailed the picture becomes, but it is possible to do this with even strangers in the street.

I also find that the more time one on one I get, the more accurate I get, and physical proximity helps. In fact, I get most accurate (and most overwhelmed by their emotional state) when physically touching.

 

[Lady_X]

I know what you mean but experience it more in a weighted sort of way. I experience energy as being light or heavy or frenetic and if it's flowing outward or pooling inward more

This sounds ridic because I don't sit there and put words to it. I'm just trying to describe a feeling response.

 

[EcK]

Yeah but as I always say ENFPs are notoriously absolutely terrible at reading me. Pretty much all their models for why I act in way X and Y are wrong. I faced lots of resistance in my interactions with enfps when simply explaining that they got it wrong.

 

[Amargith]

I kind of wonder if thats coz they are jumping to conclusions, despite their initial observations being perhaps right, and whether its because enfps and entps notoriously use the same tools to focus on very different fields.

Id also say that unfamiliarity with the inner workings of an entp or any type really, can cause you to read the emotional state perhaps correctly, but the intensity of said state as well as the significance to the person very much wrongly.

 

[unityemissions]

The weightedness is merely Fi doing it's thing.

It takes Fi in combination with Si to have the complex information sets which are the foundation of the "psychic" experience.

From here, it takes Ne to imagine the possible meanings of the experience, and Te to hone in on the most likely scenario.

If everything is working in order, you can make a ton of monies becoming a "psychic" or in other endeavors.

I play poker and rely heavily on these "psychic" experiences to know what the other person is playing with and why they are playing as they do, even if they're not aware of it!

The best is dealing with the pure analytical minds who are stuck at the level of mere deductive reasoning.

They usually think I'm a poor player because I am system independent (at least of their known systems ) , but after I take their monies, it really doesn't matter what they think!

 

[Lady_X]

I think we can be wrong for sure. I think it's going to depend on how many different types of people you've known and how many different types of feelings and emotional states and motivations etc that you've incorporated into your si bank

Idk something like that I suppose.

 

[EcK]

See. You still all still assume knowledge of other ppl's emotional states as a given. You can't know that.

 

[Amargith]

Im not assuming anything, but honestly, yes, the data is there. It is actually perceived. Whether or not it is interpreted correctly is entirely up to the abilities of the ENFP.

 

[Lady_X]

See. You still all still assume knowledge of other ppl's emotional states as a given. You can't know that.

I'm talking about empathy which one learns from being a scientist of sorts of the human experience. Your ne collects ti data and ours collects fi both based on si

Or however it works but there certainly is a difference and it's not fair of you to discard because it's not something you experience.

 

[unityemissions]

See. You still all still assume knowledge of other ppl's emotional states as a given. You can't know that.

You seem to be projecting your lack in ability to discern people's emotional states onto other individuals.

Nobody here is claiming to know everyone else's emotional state. We're saying it's something our type tends to excel at is all.

You're the one who is assuming

 

[EcK]

You seem to be projecting your lack in ability to discern people's emotional states onto other individuals.

Nobody here is claiming to know everyone else's emotional state. We're saying it's something our type tends to excel at is all.

You're the one who is assuming

Ironically that's actually strengthening my argument