I've personally known two empaths in the past so I would say they do exist to some degree.

These two women had one thing in common: they could sense when I was closing myself off from them and when I was hiding my feelings or even trying to deceive them.

I find empaths intimidating because I often prefer to keep my feelings hidden from people unless I find them relevant to a specific situation, however, I can't keep myself closed off from an empath and that does scare me.

Then again, I am the polar opposite on the Meyer's Briggs personality types; an INTJ. Feelings don't come easy for me and I don't like talking about them to most people.