Theresa Caputo

Theresa Caputo! When I say the name you either know immediately who I am speaking of or you give me a blank stare. I guess it all depends on how much tv you watch and what kind of tv you watch as to whether you know who she is or not. If you watch TLC (I think it is TLC) or just about any talk show then you probably have at least glimpsed this little....big haired blonde with the New York/Long Island accent who has a propensity to talk to "spirit"! Yep...if you have caught her reality documentary show....you know I am speaking of The Long Island Medium.

To be honest...I have watched very little of her show but I have seen enough to give me pause and make me wonder. Mainly the reason is because she isn't like a lot of the "mediums" we are used to seeing who refuse to even talk to you unless you have first put down money to have a one on one with them or have paid to come to one of their event readings. No Caputo is a medium of a different kind. She gives readings anytime and anywhere the "spirit" strikes her. Literally! She can be at the dry cleaners, getting her car worked on or at the beauty salon and if "spirit" which is what she calls the voices or spirits of the dead who talk to her, starts speaking.....she will immediately search out the individual whose family member or friends are trying to contact them.....and give them a message right then and there. I will admit....this I found intriguing.

Caputo looks to be about 5'1" or 2" with the quintessential big hair and decided accent all the Jersey/New York reality shows have taught us to expect from that part of the country. The only thing bigger than Caputo's hair is her personality. She is all in....wherever she goes. She seems very uninhibited especially when it comes to spirit as she will search out and find the person who is being messaged whether there are 3 people there or 300. According to Caputo she has been seeing/hearing spirit since she was about 4 years old. As I have not read in depth into her life and currently I can find no wiki info on just Caputo, I will assume that dealing with spirit all these years has had its trying, scary and even frustrating moments...especially when Caputo is a practicing Catholic. Yep.....and Catholics as a rule don't usually do the whole spirit thing. Funny thing though, a lot of the mediums that have been hard to dispute have been Catholics. A lot of psychics and those who work with real "ghost hunters," are also Catholics and are in close contact with the Catholic church for rituals such as exorcisms. Catholic prayers are almost always used as a means to drive away evil and evil spirits. That's right....you all scoff at us until someone is possessed. Then who ya gonna call....that's right. A Catholic.  Hmmmm...... Also, let us not forget those profits and saints who have had knowledge of other wordly persons and events. Yes....I know, God given knowledge, but then whose to say Caputo's is not also God given? It would have been a hard fought argument against firm believing Catholics.....myself likely included until yesterday.

Caputo is  married and has two teenage children and her family is well aware of her gifts. Aware almost to the point that they find it irritating and even somewhat embarrassing when Caputo will stop at a school function or the mall and search out who spirit wants her to. Lets face it....all teenagers feel like this about their parents from time to time. The only difference is.....most parents can't tell you that your long dead grandfather left some papers hidden under a floor board in the house and you need to go find them. It is a good thing this family is pretty laid back and has learned to go with the flow...not to mention laugh at themselves.

 Mediums and psychics have not had very good press and many mediums of the past have been proven frauds out to make a buck on peoples emotions. Knowing that you can find out the future or talk to someone who has died is pretty emotional stuff and something that to some would be worth a lot of money. In fact in the 80's and 90's Psychic Hotlines were all the rage. You could call a 1-900 number and hear all about your future......for a price. When they were investigated and found to be nothing more than a money pit for callers who sometimes called numerous times a day and stayed on the call for lengthy sessions.....the Psychic Hotlines were all shut down. Then in the early 2000's mediums were all the rage. For a price.....a medium would sit down with you and help you contact your long lost friends and relatives. It was a new twist on the long practiced seances of the past. This new breed of mediums were masters at obtaining just the right info to give their clients a believable read thus insuring a return visit with more info and an even more believable read. Many of these so-called mediums were also found to be fraudulent and thus mediums almost became a joke.

As far as my belief in mediums....I was brought up that there is a thin line between good and evil and heaven and hell....therefore erring on the side of caution is always best. My mother told me that when she was young that she had gone to a fortune teller. Whatever the fortune teller had told her (which she would never tell me), came to pass and it scared her to death. Mom's overall feeling was that whatever this fortune teller was dishing out....it was not coming from a good place and she used it as a cautionary tale to steer clear of such things. Her feeling was that God has a reason for not allowing us to know the future....except when He gives us saints and profits whom He hand picks to deliver such information. As for ghosts, spirits and the dead.....even though members of my largely Catholic family have come in direct contact with spirits....it is rarely talked about and it seems to fall into the family tales as more lore than history. I think the issue is that Catholics and other religions too...this is not exclusive to just us, find it difficult to find the line between what God allows us and what the devil try's to convince us of. It doesn't help that so many fakes are walking the street with big promises and their hands out.

When I was in my late teens a local radio station had a psychic in the studio. She was fairly well known and had even worked with the police on several unsolved cases with some success. She was doing readings over the phone if you called in and were selected. Unbeknown to my mother....I called in. I was chosen for her to do a reading and to this day.....I can't tell you what she said or if it were right or wrong. When my mom found out her first reaction was...."You know better than that," followed by...."What did she say?" It obviously wasn't too earth shattering or it would have stuck in my mind better. At least I think it would have. At any rate....I knew my mothers interest was just as intrigued as mine.

I won't lie. With those I have lost, I have thought often about how much I would like to talk to them again. I have even had dreams about it. Still....I don't have the money to shell out for an iffy reading by an iffy medium and even if I did have the money.....I still don't think I would. However....after seeing what I saw yesterday on Dr. Oz, if I had the money I just might spend it on a trip to Hicksville, NY and hang out in Caputo's neighborhood for a day or two and see if spirit has any messages for me.

So yesterday....Dr. Oz had Caputo on. Now I don't normally watch Dr. Oz but yesterday I just happened to flip over and I saw her, so I watched. Apparently she had been on before and it was decided that this time they were going to do some studies on her brain waves to see what her brain did when she was getting messages. They did a before and during study. The test was done by an MD who is an expert in this sort of things. While I didn't understand everything that was being said and shown about the different kind of waves....what I did find interesting was that there was a definite change in the waves and the kind of waves, when she was getting a message. It also showed on her brain a spot that was common with people who have seizures....which she does not have. The MD said there was definitely something going on in her brain when she was getting these messages. Very interesting. Add to all this that when she does a reading....paid or otherwise...she wants no information on a person. Then....there are literally hundreds of people that she has read that the messages she gives are in no way anything she could possibly know. Sometimes the messages are even things the messagie had forgotten or had no idea would somehow be important. Caputo does not claim to be psychic as she does not know the future and seems very happy about that.

I have often believed that if my child were missing and the police could not find them....I would not be above contacting a psychic. I believe that there is both good and evil on this earth and sometimes the evil is not always mortal and not always seen. Perhaps God gave us these special individuals to help fight that evil whether we understand their abilities or not. After yesterday....I am a lot more inclined to believe that Caputo might just be one of Gods special people given this gift with a purpose. Obviously there is something going on in her brain that is different than yours and mine and she has been on the money with her messages too many times to simply disregard her gift. And lets face it....who would actually want to go through life as a messenger between the living and the dead? It would be exhausting and cut into your own life and emotions (although she says she rarely feels emotion during her readings) and at the very least....the lives of her family. At times I am sure it feels like much more of a curse than a gift. So at the end of the day...is the spunky, Long Island medium for real? I would say the facts seem to point to....yes!