Portrait Painting

I'm not exactly sure how to even word this. But when I paint people's portraits, I feel like ... like I'm bonding with them in a weird way. It's really creepy actually. Like this has happened with literally every portrait I've painted, where I get into this weird zone where it's just me and this person I'm painting, even though it's from a photo and that person is not actually there with me. I almost get into their head-space. But it's like, wtf? How the hell do I know what's in their head-space? I don't know, but all I can say is that it's like I almost become psychically aware of some other element of this person. Some other mysterious element. It's weird.