Defining an Empath is not a simple thing. When you go to Webster's Dictionary and read the definition of empathy it says it is the projection of one's own personality into the personality of another in order to understand them better: intellectual identification of oneself with another. This is putting it very simply. I would guess an Empath didn't write that definition.
There are many different ways of being an Empath, from feeling the people's emotions around you, to feeling things that have happened in the past. All take great prayer in being able to understand and use this gift. Being empathic has been one of the most wonderful, and one of the hardest things to come to terms with, in my earth walk. All my life I have felt and known things about other people. As an "enlightened" adult, dealing with this has sometimes been very unsettling. What I have seen empathicly has never scared me, but has shaken me a few times. I have allowed myself to become an open-ended vessel for the Universe. Sometimes this brings me pain, but it is out of the love for Mitakuye Oyasin (All My Relations) that I have agreed to this.
I not only feel things in the present, I feel things from the past. The first time I was really shaken by an empathic vision I was in a retreat area in Arkansas. An Empathic Vision happens when I began to feel strong feelings and there is no one around me. This particular time, I was walking on the land of the retreat area and began to see several Native People of the past walking around. I felt a despair and an anger coming from them as I looked at their faces. They were moving around aimlessly. Some strange looking men in strange hats, with weapons, were walking among the Native people. As these strange men walked, the Native people would move away from them. I felt intense feelings being exchanged between them.
I was shaking as I went back to the lodge. The owner asked me what was wrong. When I began to explain what I had seen, she told me that this wasan area where DeSoto had held some of the Native people as he crossed the land.
Many feelings and things come to me because I have prayed to Creator to use me, and I have allowed this to be used for good. I am no better or worse than anyone else. This is not about how good a person is. Being an Empath is about helping through what it is we are given. Empaths see and feel things that are for their higher good as well as for others. As Empaths, we all need to understand that we have also been given the ability to close this off when we need to. Sometimes it can be overwhelming. All we have to do is to ask Creator, or whomever your higher power is, to help you to see what is for the Higher Power and Good of our Universe, and to guide us in understanding it.