An Empath has the ability to experience another person's feelings.  It is important to avoid confusing empathy with emotional contagion, sympathy, or telepathy.  When you feel sympathy, you wish for a person to feel better.  Emotional contagion is usually when you feel intense emotions similar to what you may experience at a Rock Concert.  Telepathy is the ability to know how someone may feel because the other person's mind is being read.  There is a subtle difference between knowing and feeling.