I am an empath. What does that mean exactly? The actual definition of being an empath is described using words such as paranormal or science fiction, as many individuals doubt the actuality of their existence. Except that I'm living proof that empaths exist, so why do we doubt them? That would be because empaths have the ability to tell how other people feel, not simply because they are good at reading people, but because when surrounded by another individual, they FEEL their emotions as if they were their own.

Growing up, I thought that I was crazy when I would explain to my mom that I could feel a person's energy. I could tell that they were angry, or sad, or anxious, even when they were sitting across from me laughing until they couldn't breathe. I could tell especially when they tried to hide it, as I could feel the energy appearing and then lingering until it appeared again. When I asked them, and they were honest with me, I was always right, but I never understood how I just knew. I felt crazy. But was it really all that mad?

Being a biology and chemistry double major, I have had my fair share of learning and attempting to understand the more scientific aspects of our nature. For a majority of my major, I felt that what I studied and what I felt were two completely different things. One being the paranormal, and the other being normal. But what if they are one and the same? All living things are made up of energy. In the earliest of science classes, we learn that energy cannot be created or destroyed. So, therefore, all of the energy that will ever exist in the universe is existing right now, in various ways.

So what if my uncanny ability to feel people's emotions isn't really about their emotions at all but is more so about my ability to read their energy? It's the same feeling as your response to a thunderstorm. Some people get anxious on rainy days, some get tired, others become happy. Your body whether you know it or not is responding to the electrical currents and energy that is existing in the universe and is creating emotions or feelings based on that energy. So would it really be all that odd if I noticed that shift?

This thought process and the acceptance that the energy that makes me who I am and you who you are leads me to think about something many people continually question. Do souls exist? In a way, I would have to say yes, but not as many people believe. I don't believe that every individual has a soul per se, or a previously existing identity living in their body. I do, however, believe that the energy that exists in me most definitely could have been used to guide the life of someone before me. Energy is recycled, so it also may not be that crazy to assume that certain energies are familiar with one another after years and years of existing by each other's sides. So what if that's the reason we feel that people come into our lives for a reason and that when we meet certain people we immediately feel familiar with them, or we immediately hate them without any justified reason. What if it's all about my energy, acknowledging that it likes your energy, or hating your energy because, in the past, those energies have enjoyed one another or conflicted.

Every living thing is made up of energy. Yes, we can deny the paranormal, we can deny spirituality, but we don't have to. Take a step back and realize that it may not be all that crazy for energy to be reused. Maybe my energy existed as a fish in the past, or as an Egyptian pharaoh, but I know that the energy that exists in me, existed long before I even breathed. That's not necessarily crazy, that's just science.