Race of Empaths

[Jester85]

So I've seen stories dealing with an individual empath trying to adapt to their abilities, etc., but one of my main races is an entire culture of empaths.

One of the big things about this race is that they're intensely communal and social, and can't bear to be isolated from their people (like literally, they spiral into depression). They have mass meditation rituals aimed at being as attuned to each other's needs as possible.

I also had the thought that they're probably big on positive emotions and kind of scared of negative emotions and try to avoid and discourage them.

Deceit is kind of an alien concept to them, as well as being kind of hard when everyone around you can sense your feelings and even thoughts to an extent.

Any tips on things to keep in mind about it would be like to have an entire society where everyone is an empath? I have the basic concept, but I just want it to feel plausibly fleshed-out, and others might have thoughts that haven't occurred to me.

 

[Juliana]

Just a thought; would it be hard for your race to maintain individuality/ personal space and ideas if they share so much? Would there be a tendency to develop a sort of "hive mind" mentality, where its easier to just go with the flow and not rock the status quo?

It would be interesting to think about the sort of issues an empath might have in this sort of society, give it some shades of grey...

 

[Laeraneth]

An important detail to decide would be whether they are empathic and all - for lack of a better term - on the same wavelength, or whether it's possible to tune out some of the others or not.

If they just generally pick up everything around them with little exception, it could give interesting opportunity for deceit that everyone knows is around, but no one knows the source. (Or hate, or envy, or whatever other emotion you need for the story)

I think one of my first thoughts would actually be, "What would this do to their language?"
We use so many words to try and evoke what we're feeling, or want other people to feel (really... the essence of storytelling ) but they wouldn't need that, they would know what other people are feeling without words and description. Would that reduce their spoken language to a simpler form? Would they just speak bare facts with no inflection because the deeper meaning will be known by anyone around them whether they want it to be or not?

 

[Jester85]

We use so many words to try and evoke what we're feeling, or want other people to feel (really... the essence of storytelling ) but they wouldn't need that, they would know what other people are feeling without words and description. Would that reduce their spoken language to a simpler form? Would they just speak bare facts with no inflection because the deeper meaning will be known by anyone around them whether they want it to be or not?

That's an interesting thought.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I have a race of Empaths in my trilogy. It can be tricky eg hiding plot outcomes etc. In the end I had to go with being able to opt out as it became unwieldy (and pace-killing) otherwise.

 

[jastius]

if an empath can make you feel something you normally wouldn't, perhaps their form of capital punishment is to drown the condemned with emotions.
negative emotions can hurt a person's body. (stressors, heart attack, etc...) perhaps this is their way of dealing with criminals. death by emotion.

 

[tinkerdan]

I guess for me the big question would be is the empathy something that must be forced or does it just leak out everywhere. There's a difference between having a conversation with someone and just blabbing all the time. So is there a comparison with the empathy? If it's optional then it could be treated just like conversation. If it's always active like blubbering constantly then as long as they are raised with that in their environment it should work, but it would effect everything.

Maybe consider what it would be like if every time you felt something you shouted it out for everyone to hear.

The other thing would be whether we would feel things the same. Someone has a moment of fear or anxiety. Would that come through true or might it be muted sometime and loud others. Would distance count and would it cause a chain reaction that rippled through the community.

I think I would move in a hurry.

 

[Tecdavid]

If community and togetherness are so important to them, and they can read and share their thoughts, could they be something of a hive-mind people? That is, assuming their culture's been geared towards sociability for generations, and their ability to read each other's thoughts has always been encouraged, then wouldn't the notion of independent thoughts be gradually whittled out of them, or at least considered undesirable?

Could make for a pretty creepy race!

 

[Locrian]

Also, what advantages would there be for individuals who could manipulate the way they are perceived, and in effect, learn how to lie? Would there be an evolutionary advantages to individuals capable of doing this?

 

[Jester85]

I don't know why this is giving me so much trouble. I've already started multiple threads begging for help with this (and received some helpful suggestions), so I'll just vent here.

I know the concept and premise of them. It's more like I just don't know where to begin actually sitting down and writing an introductory scene for them that conveys what it needs to convey.

I need some kind of entry point into the scene. And I'm not asking you guys to write my story for me, I'm mostly just venting my frustrations with it. My militaristic reptilians, it helped me when I decided to use the ancient Spartans as inspiration, along with the Third Reich, and some dystopian world ideas. All of that brought them more into focus for me. I feel like I'm lacking whatever it is I'm looking for that brings my empaths into focus.

 

[thaddeus6th]

I imagine they'd view negative emotions or not sharing things as being anti-social.

That might also influence building and city designs (open doorways rather than doors, less hierarchical, perhaps). It would also dramatically alter law and order.

 

[Jester85]

That might also influence building and city designs (open doorways rather than doors, less hierarchical, perhaps).

I like that, thanks. Very open architecture, representing the openness of their culture. Nice tip.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

I liked the suggestion about language. They say that about eighty percent of what we communicate ourselves is non-verbal. For them I woul expect it to be much closer to a hundred percent. And because of that the spoken or written word would probably seem like an inadequate thing - slow, innaccurate and cubersome. So maybe they would have some completely different way of storing and rediscovering information. I'm thinking perhaps of something like plays - rote learned of course to convey the emotions as well as the actions. A book just wouldn't do it for them.

I also suspect their crimes would be very different. I can't see anyone in this society committing murder for example as wassuggested before. I can see the crime of cutting oneself off from others as being much more important in their world.

And I would wonder how they would deal with death. It woul seem to me that in a worl where everyone shares your feelings,when a few are feeling intensely sad / grieving, that everyone would feel something of that pain and would suffer with them. (Hence the reason I can't imagine anyone committing murder etc. And no more can I imagine them having any form of capital punishment.)

Cheers, Greg.

 

[Jester85]

Hi,

I liked the suggestion about language. They say that about eighty percent of what we communicate ourselves is non-verbal. For them I woul expect it to be much closer to a hundred percent. And because of that the spoken or written word would probably seem like an inadequate thing - slow, innaccurate and cubersome. So maybe they would have some completely different way of storing and rediscovering information. I'm thinking perhaps of something like plays - rote learned of course to convey the emotions as well as the actions. A book just wouldn't do it for them.

I also suspect their crimes would be very different. I can't see anyone in this society committing murder for example as wassuggested before. I can see the crime of cutting oneself off from others as being much more important in their world.

And I would wonder how they would deal with death. It woul seem to me that in a worl where everyone shares your feelings,when a few are feeling intensely sad / grieving, that everyone would feel something of that pain and would suffer with them. (Hence the reason I can't imagine anyone committing murder etc. And no more can I imagine them having any form of capital punishment.)

Cheers, Greg.

Re: murder, it's virtually unheard of, as is suicide. Suicide really shell shocks them and is seen as a grievous failure of the entire collective people to understand the individual's pain.

I will have one character from this race, one of my (eventual) primary villains, actually, who does commit murder, but he is horribly scarred mentally by his own actions, and this is one of several factors that lead him to madness.

 

[TitaniumTi]

Your introductory scene could be based on an event or change that affects access to the group mind. Banishment or illness might separate your protagonist from the group mind. A child might be born without empathic capacity. Your protagonist might volunteer for a pioneering role that will separate her from the group mind, then undergo preparatory training and habituation.

How does separation feel? Is return to the group mind as distressing as the initial separation?

On a society scale, do they develop technology to manipulate the strength or even the characteristics of empathic communication? Does the group mind evolve? What are the effects of changes in population size? Do environmental events affect empathic communications? (There might be anxiety about a predicted solar flare.)

Writing the POV would be fascinating. Empathic communication might affect both content and structure of the POV. Would their language have the same subject-verb-object structure that underlies English? I imagine they might need subject-verb-object communication for technical communication, but not for other communication. For example, a mother calling a child to dinner might project hunger, rather than saying, "Wash your hands and sit down at the table."

Following on from the previous thought, how does an adolescent react? Does he go through a stage of feeling "get out of my mind, Mum"? (I know, even the concepts of "mum" and adolescence are anthropomorphic.)

 

[hopewrites]

If you want to talk to a real empath, you can PM me.