By Kirby Robinson
Here are two blogs that were originally posted back in May, well before the release of her new book—and mine. They concern the credibility of the Long Island Medium, Theresa Caputo. For the past few years, she has become America's so-called number one medium. Nowhere has she ever claimed to be a psychic, as those claims can easily be disproven. Also, the Long Island Medium claims she is never wrong.
Americans are embracing psychics and mediums. Go to Google and type in psychics and mediums-- you could spend 8 hours a day for a year, and never visit every site on the Internet.
You can spend hundreds to thousands of dollars getting a phone reading, Skype, and in person readings. You can attend gallery readings, which is a group reading, and you're not even promised to receive one bit of information from the other side.
Sylvia Browne is the former number one psychic of record who has been featured onLarry King Live and appeared frequently on The Montel Williams Show. Ms. Browne has more than 50 books in print, 21 books in audio format, and all her so-called nonfiction titles can't stand a serious test of legitimacy. For example, her book "Afterlives of the Rich and Famous" is impossible to fact check—she can make up any story. And she does---as her books are simply flights of fantasy and fiction.
Why is this? Why has the public become so accepting of these modern day snake oil salespeople?
- Rejection of God's message and embracing a feel good new age false religion.
- Uncertain times force people to find sanctuary in something. Some find it in drugs while others find it in people who will tell them what they want to hear.
- Searching for the truth about life after death. Going by what the psychics and mediums say, we can live any way we want. We can do anything we want. We can think any way we want to and sin any way we want to. If we accept their words, whether written in a book or spoken on TV, there will be no price to pay. There is no hell, no punishment -- just a bright and sunny afterlife.
- A society should embrace a learning process. Now, everything is spoon-fed to us. Our ability to think, question, and engage in a scientific manner has been reduced. If anyone on TV says it is so, then it is so. If I read it on the Internet, it is so. If some "expert" appears for a few minutes on Oprah or Ellen and says it is so – then it must be so.
Like every other medium and psychic out there, The Long Island Medium is a fake. She feeds on the emotionally needy and the spiritually insecure. Like all the others, she increases her bank account by tricking her audience that she has all the answers. She convinces her cult-like followers that she has something called "the spirit" that feeds her the information that you crave.
When I go to funerals, you won't see me cry. It's not that I am heartless. It's due to my faith. I know the saved have gone on to heaven. Why? Because that is what my faith teaches me. When the unsaved die, they made the choice to go to hell. No matter how many prayers one would say, no matter if some church baptizes them after death, that is where they are going. It is clearly stated that way-- no doubts, no worries. But so many new age "thinkers" are left in doubt. So, the new agers must turn to a medium to find out where they are at and are they all right?
The Long Island Medium talks to "SPIRIT." [Some Christians might say that is a demon feeding her information as they point out she never talks about angels, she never sees God, only mentions "a God" and the word Jesus never crossed her lips -- and they might be right].
What I've seen of her readings and our investigation into her televised Florida road trip, we uncover her so-called talent for talking to the dead.
Let me share a video from the show "LIVE! with Kelly and Michael" of a reading she did with the audience and show how she tricks the audience.
Notice she's working with an audience of over 150 people. Medium or not, you can safely ask:
- Who here lost a child?
- Who here lost a husband, wife, parent, sibling, or a grandparent?
- Who here lost a baby?
- Who here lost someone to cancer, AIDS, heart attack, car accident, etc.
You're going to have hands shoot up because these things happen. They're fairly common so you're going to get it right.
When they go out looking for an audience to fill their studio they tell people who the guest is so she knows why people are there.
Earlier on, she had a long string of misses and she had to come up with an explanation for it. She claimed it was confusion in interpreting the signs that she received.
She goes for "who over here has lost a husband?" and she sees several admitted widows. Notice that she goes over to an older female time. Cue violins, it's time to yank the heartstrings. The next step is to go into her cold readings mode, asking questions in such rapid-fire fashion you fail to notice Theresa isn't really telling her anything but simply asking questions.
Once she starts talking to the woman start counting the seconds.
- She says, "People leave this world in many different ways." The purpose of that statement is to fool the audience into believing that Theresa is knowledgeable in the ways of the spirit world. Listen to what comes up next.
- Theresa complements the woman for all the unselfish things she did. That is what the widow wants to hear. Have you ever heard a medium say, "Hey stupid, your husband says you were a lousy mother, couldn't cook worth a damn, were lousy in the sack and I couldn't wait to die!"
- Have you been counting? If you have, then ask yourself how could she be talking to the spirit of the dead man and never get a name from him? When she starts to miss with the food questions, she has to cover her tracks. These are signs and symbols she gets. She isn't wrong only responding to the symbols that she's seen.
- She quickly breaks it off and goes to her next reading. In reality, this isn't a reading but an endorsement of her abilities. She tries, but fails, to get the audience to laugh. Again, no name is given.
- She tells the group that things she says might apply to them even though she isn't looking at them. This gives the audience a false sense that they got something from the session. In reality, they got nothing.
- She talks about a "blood illness" that is head to toe and has something to do with the liver. Anatomy 101—blood circulates throughout the entire body. All blood illnesses are head to toe and all blood diseases impact the liver.
- She then asks who is being tested for other illnesses? That's a very safe one to toss out as people are always being tested for something.
- She talks about the blow to the chest cause in death. It doesn’t pertain to those she reads for but it applies to those seated on the other side of the studio. Then it goes from a blow to the chest to her father died in front of her. The great message is don't feel bad about it! Who wouldn't feel bad about something like that?
Notice that Theresa Caputo has a string of misses and questionable hits so she decides to opt for humor to keep the viewer derailed and bring in the hosts for a laugh.
Theresa tosses out the question, who lost a daughter? No hits, so she jumps on to a brain aneurysm or Alzheimer’s [you don't die from that illness]. A male reacts but she rejects him. Nope, it's a young good-looking woman who takes advantage of the diseases beginning with the letter A. It's easier to bring a woman to tears than a man. This woman accepts everything sent her way, right up to the question "Do you have any of her clothing?" That's a fairly safe one to ask, knowing that you'll get a yes. But when the Long Island Medium starts to ask about recent deaths, it's a big miss and Theresa breaks it off.
So let’s break down this so-called certified medium readings down. [Ms. Caputo has been certified by the Family Forever Foundation.]
1 Did she give us any names? No.
2 Dates? No.
3 Places? No.
We are left to ask this question--when people pass, do they get dumber? Do they lose the ability to communicate with us? Are they unable to speak clearly through mediums? If we go by what we see of the Long Island Medium, they can show up but are unable to say who they are, whom they are here to visit. The deceased person can't give their own name and the name of the loved one, not do they give a clear message.
People will always ask how can people like this do such things? Theresa Caputo is not unique in any way. She's just one more in a long list of flavors of the month/year when it comes to fake psychics. She's now in the company of The Amazing Kreskin, Uri Geller, Sylvia Browne, John Edwards, and James Van Praagh. Whether they claim to be mind readers, magicians, mentalists, or mediums they all have the same basic foundations.
1 They always claim that the gift came to them early in life. Theresa Brigandi [maiden name] states that her gift always sent her parents and brother into a crazy sort of ghost hunt. At times, it led to having her father climb onto the roof of their home looking for things with green scary eyes. This flies against what she now claims -- to have never seen anything evil looking.
2 They always claim that they did not really use their gift in life while they were children. Except as a way to entertain others.
3 Others always found them different.
4 They'll always find a mentor which in the case of Theresa, was Pat Longo, a Long Island medium herself. Mrs. Longo claims that she can heal you in person or over the phone for just $175. Here's her website: http://patlongo.net/
In bold letters on Mrs. Longo's website it says "…and in some God gave the gift of healing."
That is found in the bible: 1 Corinthians 12
But nowhere will you find the passage: "And some the gift of healing which you can charge $175."
Not to turn this into a Bible thumping blog, but the moment money is connected to anyone carrying out the gifts of the spirit, it stops being a genuine gift from God. The alleged gift of healing means that it's either outright fakery or a gift from someplace other than heaven.
In the May 26th episode, Why Me, we learn that Pat had to deal with cancer and she had an operation. She also mentions that her husband died from cancer five months ago. Why she did not turn to her faith for healing? From the new age viewpoint, cancer is caused by a negative spirit and/or negative energies being blocked at the chakra points. This isn't something we'd expect from a healer.
We don't know if Theresa went to Pat and was told that she was a medium or not. Or did she go to Pat and say you're making a killing in this line or work, teach me how you fake it. I'll take a look at the view that this so-called "spirit" they claim to talk to is a demonic one.
Additionally it seems that Pat feels she can teach anyone to do what Theresa claims to do. That means it is not really a "gift" at all but simply a trade like driving a truck or being a cook.
It seems her teaching days are over as of 6/15/13.
Further digging into the site leads us to a Wordpress blog made up of even more wacky new age teachings on topics that were taught in the new age world back in the 1980s.
But there was a blog that had an interesting title which lead us to a question to even more of her claims. This is written by a participant in one of Pat's healing sessions. The author writes about a mishmash of new age and eastern topics and describes herself as a sensitive soul.
7 Ways to raise your Vibration: according to Pat Longo, Long Island Theresa Caputo’s healer.
Pat apparently didn't tell TLC that she was a medium [have you ever heard of a psychic telling their client he/she is not psychic when asked?]. Anyway, she was/is Theresa's mentor as well as her healer. Therefore, the Long Island Medium endorses people that take part in illegal activates. Additionally, nowhere on the site is there any evidence of medical science certifying that she is really a healer.
Pat seems she know how to make a buck as she appeared on her student's show in the second episode of the past season. If you want to see the pair together in the Season 2 episode called Drumming and Healing, you can go to Amazon and see it for $1.99. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007ORWB86
This season, Theresa complained that her shoulder hurt. Did she go to her healer for that magic touch? No, she went to All-Star Physical Therapy. http://www.all-starpt.com/
Michael Brigandi PT, MS
Guess she's afraid of making Pat Longo a big star…
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