Theresa Caputo: Is the 'Long Island Medium' Harming Instead of Helping?
The second season premiere of "Long Island Medium" on TLC has drawn a significant number of viewers, but do people really know who Theresa Caputo is or how she communicates with the dead?
Caputo is the latest in a long line of entertainers who claim to receive messages from those who have crossed over and died. She has been compared to John Edwards and Sylvia Browne, and her new series is a hit on TLC, but is she doing good when delivering messages or could she be causing unknown harm?
"When I go about my day, thoughts to spirit are: 'If there's someone that's placed in my path that needs to hear a message, give me the opportunity and I'll be more than happy to present whatever you have to say to them,'" she told Yahoo News.
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Caputo does not believe in God per say but instead relies upon her "spirit guide."
She has never been "normal" but instead describes a lifetime of "hearing and seeing things that now I know were spirits at the time I just thought was normal."
She began sharing messages she received from the spirits with those around her and eventually landed on TLC with her own show.
"When I was approached to do it [the show], I asked my family and how they felt and they were like, 'Yeah, go right ahead.' They were all for it."
The show, now in its second season, features Caputo giving readings to paying clients as well as impromptu readings for people she encounters on the street, in the dentist's office, or wherever she may be.
In watching an episode of "Long Island Medium," one notes that Caputo never refers to any higher being except for Spirit, who she says is in control of her life and the messages she receives. "I didn't choose this," she tells viewers. Caputo calls herself "the vessel" that Spirit chooses to speak through.
Watching her deliver readings for paying and not paying people is interesting in that one can see a look of relief on the faces of the recipients, and it is claimed that not once has Caputo got the message wrong. However, the question, as is with all mediums and psychics, remains. How can one be certain that the messages are true?
"Unfortunately…what she calls a spirit guide is actually a demon," notes Marie from Michigan on Yahoo. "Let no one be found among you who…practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens…or who is a medium who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord" (Deuteronomy 18:10-13).
"Beloved, do not believe every spirit but test the spirits, whether they are of God," Marie quotes the Bible as saying in 1 John 4:1-4.
Lori Adams is quick to note: "It's called entertainment. Just as the Jersey shore and the Housewives shows are supposed to be to each other their own demographics."
