By Kirby Robinson
Because the sham of a show, Long Island Medium, is
returning to TLC for another season on March 9, we're running our original two-part
blog.
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.
The late Sylvia Browne is the former number one
psychic of record who has been featured on Larry
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 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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