I've had some weird experiences too, like recently sitting in my car in the parking lot at work, and seeing someone that I know owns a red sports car, walking into a section of the parking lot where there were no red cars, or sports cars, so I think to myself, "What car is he going too?" and I immediately get a mental image of a white Volkswagen bus, and then I watch him walk over to a white Volkswagen bus, unlock the door, and get in. I have had many experiences where I swear I must be a mind reader, but I don't try to be.Yes, and yes. Actually, more the latter than the former. And it's not all the time...mostly people with whom I feel a closer connection.
OK. My further thoughts. I've been trying to do it more purposefully, and finding I can't bring myself to do it when I know they can probably deal with the emotion of the moment. When I do it, it's in a moment of blind empathetic reaction when the person is obviously completely overwhelmed with emotion, to the point of not being able to calm themselves. Maybe that's what's required for me to feel that deep empathy, or maybe my rational side is stopping me the rest of the time, so that the people around me stay healthy and know how to deal with their own emotions.
I dunno. I've also noticed that I seem to feel the impulse to deeply comfort more with certain emotions more than others. Pain is a huge one. The biggest really. Anger is really huge, and overwhelming, and doesn't seem to be something I can help with. In fact, it feels almost wrong to try to relieve it. Stress, panic, discouragement and despair seem helpable.
I feel like Alice right after she fell down the rabbit hole.
Here's a funny one: I was walking through the parking lot of a health store yesterday, and I sensed the man across the parking lot was going to sneeze when he passed my baby and I (I know, right? ), and automatically overruled my impulse to scoff and shifted my baby to my other hip and covered her face. And, a few seconds later, as we passed...the dude sneezed. I was officially weirded out.
I agree that anger is hard to penetrate, and anger directed at me, can be overwhelming. Most of the people I have helped with emotional overwhelm were not in proximity with me. It's been mainly online friends that I have given help with this to, some who live in Europe, others who live a few states away. I call it connecting to the person. Some call it mind touch. I feel someone's vibe, and they feel me feeling them, and then I feel them feeling me, and it's like this link get's established between us. I call it sharing a memory buffer, because we start feeling one another's emotions, and if the other person is feeling emotional overwhelm, I start getting inundated with that overwhelming feeling of theirs and I start sending calm back, as much to protect my nerves, as to relieve them. I call it telepathic hugs. I create in my imagination the feel of receiving a hug, and then send that 'feel' to the person I have connected myself to, and the other person feels hugged, or that's often what happens; sometimes it only relieves the tension of the overwhelmed feeling, which was my goal anyway. Right after 911, some of my online friends who lived close to NYC had need for some telepathic hugs.
Relating to mind touch, I had a wild experience a few years ago, with a picture on the front cover of a Speigel's catalog that was sitting on a magazine rack in a local grocery store, and when I saw her picture, she felt 'kindred', a term I got from another online friend that means the person feels familiar like a sister when I first encounter them. When a person feels kindred, that usually means I have much in common with them, often including ability to mind touch with them. When I noticed she felt kindred, I thought, "Hmmm, weird." and I started to walk off, when suddenly it felt like she was thinking, "Hey where do you think you're going?". I had a connection with her that lasted for about two weeks. Totally random.