I have been inspired learning about somatic empathy on youtube from Cindy Engel, author, biologist and bodyworker. I had the sense that we didn’t ‘catch’ energy from others, but nonetheless that we do feel a lot of what is going on with people and could be deeply affected by it. So what is going on? Social neuroscientific research is studying how our body simulates what another person is feeling; when we see someone’s joy, sadness, or stubbed toe, before awareness or conscious interpretation, we have conjured up a representation and feel it within our own body ‘as if’ it was our own. It is always a ‘best guess’ scenario, because we cannot simulate what we haven’t experienced before, we may feel something, but it will remain unclear for us. We all feel the same joy, anger and sadness, but it is probably rare that we can know exactly what another person is feeling, emotionally or physically, but we can house a useful simulation. Like any nature-given ability, some people will be more highly attuned and sensitive, others less so, but this is something that all of us are doing, all of the time; no doubt if we turn our mind towards it, we can learn more. In more subtle circumstances, when it is not so clear how a person is feeling, perhaps we can only know if a certain mood is not our own, through thoroughly knowing ourselves. Even then, we are connected in such mysterious and unfathomable ways, this is no doubt only a piece of the puzzle.
“Somatic Empathy = experiencing what other people feel while being aware that this vicarious state is produced by someone else.” — Keysers and Gazzola (2009) Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 19:666–671
“Without us being aware, our body simulates our mind’s best guess, and we take on another self. This matters because your moods, thoughts, and behaviour are continually influenced by this ongoing process, and you can even take on pain and trauma vicariously.” — Cindy Engel from her soon to be published book, Another Self, How Your Body Helps You to Understand Others.
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