Philip José Farmer

empathist n.	1952 P. J. Farmer Lovers in Startling Stories Aug. 61/2 We empathists can put ourselves into somebody else’s nervous system and think and feel as they do.
sentient n.	1965 P. J. Farmer Maker of Universes iii. 34 The merpeople and the sentients who lived on the beach often hitched rides on these creatures, steering them by pressure on exposed nerve centers.