A way to increase empathy?

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Is there any way in the world that one can increase empathy and be empathic as a highly empathic person?Especially a person with Aspergers syndrome?

Since lately I have been questioning about my empathy.I have been confused with empathy and sympathy.Also I wonder if compassion means the same as empathy?

As it has been explained to me by a psychologist who specializes in AS, sympathy is feeling compassion or concern for another person, particularly if they are suffering, and empathy is the ability to put oneself in another person's shoes, essentially being able to imagine what it might be like to be them. People with AS are not lacking in sympathy, but it may be difficult for us to imagine what it's like to be in another person's shoes.

I don't know how to increase one's ability to empathize, except to try to consciously remember that others don't necessarily feel the same way as we do in a given situation.

an empath is one who can tap into another's feelings. empathy means you are sympathetic to how another person is feeling. a person who is compassionate will generally have an easier time keying into another person's feelings [demonstrating empathy] than a person who lacks compassion. there are many HFAs who seem to have problems in this regard. they are often unable to understand how anybody else could be different from themselves, and often take extreme umbrage at another person refusing to comform to what they think that person ought to be. i used to be like that until fairly recently. i now preach "live and let live" with the zeal of the recently converted. if you really want to know what i went through, pm me.

I think we can empathise. But only when we are alone and thinking about it after it has happened.

A possible way of increasing it is to find inner peace, meaning that you will probably be looking more at the positive side of things.

Mediation and yoga could also help the mind be at peace and help a person be positive.

Yes I think that's it - we take a bit of time about it. Sometimes when with people, I get this feeling that there's something emotional and important in what's being exchanged, but it's only when I've got away from the source and chewed over the events that I can articulate what was happening. I don't see any reason why I couldn't do this while the other person was still there, but it's actually quite rare for me to do that. Don't want to get it wrong.

I bet that everyone who has aspergers cares about people.

MDMA seems to provide a 'crash course' in empathy-like relations with others, especially if they too have taken MDMA. It's been indicated for ASD therapy but FDA schedule 1 status makes research difficult.

Cannabis is also said to improve empathy in some autistics but imho it's not on the same scale that MDMA does, which seems to 'illuminate' the secret world of other people's everyday sh*t quite nicely.

I have no doubt that there are other banned drugs which could work wonders if only doctors were allowed to try them out on us, with our permission of course. STP?

Ketamine, DMT and LSD in very very small doses can help a lot of individuals psychological needs.

I have my doubts that anyone can truly put themselves in someone else's shoes. In the end it is a mirage. A person can only glean what it may be like to exist within someone else's head to the degree that they can project their own feelings onto some imagined circumstances. The more one deviates from the norms of human experience, the more difficult it becomes to empathize with the majority of humans. If non-autistic humans really had some magical ability to understand those who are truly different from themselves there wouldn't be so much ignorance and conflict in the world. Everyone is blinded to some degree by the limitations of their own experience.

I completely agree with you, and I think that's a very wise observation. I was trying to explain the difference between sympathy and empathy and I did so too simplistically.

When on MDMA I socialised and enjoyed it. It certainly is a crash course in real time empathy.

Yeah when I am in an interaction I have a notion that something else is going on but never can come to a conclusion. Later I run through all possible scenarios but usually still never find the right one.

That's ecstacy, right? What interests me is that that means the capability exists and, to my way of thinking, should be accessible by other means than drugs too.

So what is this MDMA?What does it stand for?

http://www.erowid.org/chemicals/mdma/mdma.shtml

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine

In other words, pure Ecstasy. Which if unadulterated and used in moderate doses is not as harmful as people believe, but it is still far from being beneficial to physical health.

If applied in the right way I guess the risks are similar to SSRI's.