Teresa Caputo is a charming, good looking gal in her 40's or so who calls herself "the Long Island Medium", obviously referring to where she lives in NY state and what she does for a living. From her description at the beginning of each show, she says she's basically a Long Island housewife except for one thing...she "talks to dead people."
Doing some research, I find either people are totally skeptical or total believers that she is actually talking to dead people, neither of which I feel to be the proper explanation .
As Teresa states, she is an active Catholic, therefore there is a problem to this paradigm ... Catholics believe that people, after they die, are basically not available to people on earth, except by a special permission from God for an isolated incidence. They either go to h-ll or to Heaven (purgatory, where final purification takes place, is a "room" in Heaven) and can not be contacted at will by humans on earth.
So who are these spirits Teresa is contacting? Some say they could be demons or "fallen angels" who seem to hang around the earth and might be mimicking love ones, but there is likely, another explanation not quite so sinister.
It could simply be that Teresa is an extraordinarily talented mind reader, to the extent that if she concentrates, she can read the thoughts of people she is with, which she, herself, may be mistaking for the thoughts of the deceased. Obviously, if the clients are in mourning for a loved one, many of their thoughts would be concerned with remembering the person, especially if they are with a Medium and have hopes of their deceased loved ones coming through. Teresa also gives consoling advice to her clients which appears to help them to better, cope with their loss. Some of the advice she gives, is general advice which works for many of those in mourning. For example, if the deceased could talk to the living, he/she would likely want the relatives to move on and enjoy life as best as they could do.
After watching several seasons of this show, I tend to think the telepathy theory explains it. We all have the ability to do that and exhibit it from time to time like for example, when you and a close friend or loved one come up with the same thought at the same time, but it makes sense that there are folks who are extraordinarily talented and practiced in this discipline and Teresa may well be one of the telepathy talented people.
She couldn't be reading with Discernment of the Holy Spirit, the Gift of soul reading such as St Pio and St Andre Besette had, as God does not allow a person with this Charismata of the Holy Spirit, to get money for readings. I observed that, as a friend of mine who has Discernment of Spirits, found out when he tried to read at psychic fairs. Because his readings were very accurate, he was wildly successful however, the Holy Spirit let him know that reading for pay, was, in his case, a sin against the Holy Spirit, and it took him some years of study to find out why God had such a problem with him reading at fairs when God seemed to have no problems with folks like Teresa Caputo. Also with Discernment, a person who can soul read may see plenty of negative things the person being read would rather not disclose, thus not providing the entertainment factor people seek when they approach a medium.
Bottom line, Teresa is likely, not committing sin and seems to help many of her clients, so no harm being done and maybe even some good things are happening. In addition, her talent seems a good source of income, helpful, especially since her hubby is somewhat disabled. (One article stated her net worth in 2013 as 2.5 million bucks and her pay for each season of the TV show as $400,000.00)
And the show is entertaining enough to be one of the more popular shows on TLC. People, seeking a proof of the afterlife, watch the show avidly.
"Long Island Medium" is well filmed with nice scenes of Long Island, and the Caputos who appear to be a loving family. Additionally, Teresa's readings are often as interesting as the clients being read. In case you are wondering, I number myself among the avid fans of this show! It airs on TLC...check your local listings! (photo is house in NY where Caputo spent her childhood)
A charming, animated blond lady on TV (TLC - "the Learning Channel") named Theresa Caputo, has intrigued many of those who have cable TV. She calls herself, "The Long Island Medium". In show's introduction, she claims that although she thinks of herself as a "typical Long Island (NY) housewife", she has a special ability - she can talk to the dead, later explaining that "spirits", presumably of dead people, come to her and she feels compelled to tell those around her about this, apparently at a decent profit to her - enough to have enabled her hubby to sell his business and become a "house husband". Truly, not many "typical Long Island housewives" earn $400,000 bucks for each TV Season and that's not counting what she gets for private readings (estimates range from $100 per to $500 per reading) for which I last heard, she's booked solid for 2 years or more in advance). One blog estimated Theresa' net worth as over 2.4 million bucks. (ibid)
Caputo has her share of loyal, believing fans, enough to fill auditoriums on her tours even though a seat in the audience is far from inexpensive, prices ranging from $100 to 4 figures (for the "good seats in front").
She also has her share of naysayers. She claims she doesn't care if people don't believe in "what she does" but I suspect at least according to one article, she may care more than she says - she apparently, had a naysayer removed from the auditorium in a Boston appearance... supposedly, this women claimed (rather loudly) that Theresa's reading was incorrect. I would bet this might have happened more than once.
It appeared that Theresa did not want to be wrong or she felt so strongly about the message that she seemed to almost forget about the other 2,999 people witnessing this. She overheard the woman say this is “bullsh-t” and all hell broke loose. By this time Theresa had lost her temper and requested that security physically escort the woman out of the Wang theater for disagreeing and I suppose disrespecting her. After all it is her show.
For the show, "Long Island Medium", she has been said to spend 45 minutes in private with each person who appears on the show.
People have been asking themselves if there is a way to discern the truth of her claims from the TV show. Although the belief that dead people are readily available for visiting the living is widespread (people don't want to believe in more of a separation), it is in opposition to Christian doctrine which states that after death - we either go to a place to complete our perfection in preparation for entrance into Heaven ("Nothing imperfect shall enter Heaven") or occasionally, as in the case of a handful of saints, we go directly or almost directly to our eternity. In any case, people who have passed would not be easily available for "readings".
Ironically, Caputo has said more than a few times that she is Catholic - although, it is unknown whether she regularly attends Mass. That being said, there are some Catholics who work as mediums or "soothsayers" despite the fact that this is opposed to Catholic beliefs. Unfortunately, many Catholic people seem confused about what our church teaches and sadly, even in asking a priest about things like ESP, at least some priests will opt out of a definitive answer, by saying "well the church says it's not true but who really knows?" (a quote of an answer I got from an elderly priest).
A more pressing question in some of our minds is, is Caputo real or merely a good entertainer?
Caputo appears to believe that what she does is the real thing but if she actually believes it, is unclear. It's clear that she's the highest paid medium or soothsayer in the USA (a fact which seems to raise a bit of ire in others in her field).
In watching her work, even on TV which is greatly edited, it's rather clear that she is employing a method called "Cold reading" in which the "reader" throws out general statements to a large audience and allows the believers present, to fill him/her in on the details.
Example: the medium will say to an audience, "who is the young male who passed?" and at least one person will speak up and give the details. (The chances of one person or more in an audience having suffered a recent death, are good). The medium jumps on the details and claims to be contacting the person who passed who is giving the individual a message. In Theresa's case, the message is usually "he/she wants you to know that she/he's at peace and watching over you!". People who want to believe, seem very consoled at the moment but whether they are really consoled after extracting themselves from Theresa and her charismatic presentation is unclear as I have not met any Caputo audience members personally to interview them about their feelings. People who have been to other readers whom I've interviewed seem divided - most take the readings as entertainment but not something upon which to make an important life decision which is likely a good idea.
It's not clear how many people really "believe" in her but though many say that she's not doing any harm because she appears to be consoling the grieving - the question rises if consoling people with possibly false information is really consoling beyond the excitement of the moment, in the audience.
Theresa appears to cleverly read people's body language etc and she's quick witted, intelligent and charming. She's also entertaining which actually raises serious questions about the truth of her readings - often the prominent thing on folks' minds is not the positive but a pending divorce, a recent death or even physical illness, and reading this type of thing is anything but entertaining.
It's possible that she may be using telepathy (mind reading) but the idea that dead people simply hang out around earth is contrary to most religions and doesn't make a lot of sense if you think about it. Why would people want to hang around earth rather than moving on to better things? Could she be contacting satanic angels who are play acting the beloved dead? If she really were contacting spirits, perhaps this would be a possibility (and a scary one - people don't want to mess with this - which is why there are warnings in the Bible etc) however I'm not convinced she's doing anything more than sizing up people, using a system of clever guessing (only positive things, of course, she assures us).
Theresa is above all, a talented, charming entertainer which is how she not only scored a high rated show on "TLC" (The Learning Channel, somewhat euphemistically named i.e. I haven't seen much there which transcends the realm of good entertainment into being truly educational!). People who don't have a strong religious belief and thus, are searching for God, readily find in people like Theresa, a good "God substitute" at least at the moment however, Theresa doesn't offer much consolation for life's rough places or as the old saying states "There are no atheists in foxholes".
The "Inside Edition blog" summed it up well - Enjoy her show but watch it with a "huge grain of salt"!
Posts
