Bob, this is sooo funny. "Hi Janice". I can't stop laughing.

Audacious in the extreme. I don't think the woman was a stooge. I think it was just going for the likely hits. That both deaths both hit with the same woman was just a bonus for Caputo.

Those fingernails are truly horrid.

I suspect the real quality needed in order to do what she does is the willingness to dredge up someone else's pain and grief and not feel at all bad about doing so. The audience was probably aware that she would be there, so that automatically stacks the group in favor of those hoping to have a connection happen. If there's an issue with the throat, how many different ways could you spin that if nobody had a father with throat cancer? I can think of at least one personal connection, myself.

WARNING: the next paragraph is personal and can be skipped if you wish, but please don't mock.

I was the one in the room when my grandmother died and she was having terrible trouble speaking. If nobody spoke up, Caputo could have gone on to say that the issue with the throat was words that desperately wanted to come out and could not, it was like they were blocked from leaving the throat. That would have hit with me if I were inclined to believe in her abilities. If she had said something about the stomach, it would have hit because there was a huge tumor in my grandmother's abdomen. Heart failure was the ultimate cause of death. So, any of three avenues would have done it. Want me to believe? Tell me what I was doing when she died. Hint: I wasn't whispering in her ear. But yes, I did talk to her after she died. If you have ever been with someone who has just died, did you have something to say to that person?

END OF PERSONAL SECTION

My feeling is that people who do this sort of thing are at least borderline sociopaths. They appear to have no empathy for the pain they draw up in people and may even claim that they are giving comfort. But have you ever seen any of them (at least of the big name ones) break down in sympathetic tears? I am not saying it doesn't happen, but I have not seen it. If I were really hearing a ghost telling me about the regrets and pain of the crying woman in front of me, I can promise you I'd be in tears myself. I just don't see this as credible.

But the Kiai master was stone cold funny. Wow.

-Patrick

ROTFL !!

If someone knew FOR SURE that death is not the end , then I personally see why there would be little if any sadness in her presentation.

It doesn't matter if the medium knows FOR SURE that death is not the end. (Even though no one knows for sure, a medium, obviously, must pretend that it is a certainty.) The point is about empathy for the sitter who has sustained the loss. I, too, have rarely seen that in fraudulent mediums, who seem to be more concerned about selling high-priced private readings than they are about the fragile psyche of a grieving survivor.

As for the so-called Long Island medium, Theresa Caputo- her latest tour hasn't been gathering very good press:

http://radaronline.com/photos/long-islan......1016766/

See also (from a writer who believed in Caputo UNTIL she saw her live show):

http://www.longislandpress.com/2014/12/2......-caputo/

A Sociopath? Or just completely self-absorbed and self-centered?

http://radaronline.com/exclusives/2014/1......demands/

The question that always comes up in my mind after seeing these kind of videoclips is "does the medium truely believe his or her own powers?".

Sometimes I think that these people really believe their own powers, and I am not talking about Char or Derik Ogilvie but just some unknown mediums that do homereadings.
If you take for example the videoclip with the Kia master, does he really believe in his own powers or does he think that the claims he makes are strong enough to convince the MMA Fighter?

Its like a lot of nlp too, works fine with other believers and outcomes that may be +10% better than average are attributed to that skill, rather than how stats work, anomalies, chance and so on...

I think the majority are fakes, but a small percentage are real, just like Arthur Ford. Ford discredited more fake mediums than Houdini did IMHO !!!!

BenRoss- Check out the common personality traits of sociopaths. Here is one list: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/1585......ath.html

And Bob nailed what I meant. There is no sign of compassion for the suffering person, here. If I could really talk to the dead, I would be trying to counsel people through their pain and grief as I passed on messages from their lost loved ones. I would not be saying "perfect" when I made a hit or claiming that pictures of flowers were some sort of validation for the person in front of me. Even if Caputo and John Edward really did hear the dead, I can't see that they do much good with it for anyone other than themselves. I mean, what kind of message is "she wants you to know she's fine"? Yet, that's the usual message they share. Want to convince someone? Hand them a note with their dead mother's computer password. (My mother died unexpectedly and we had a lot of hassles because she had a lot of the family finances in a place only she could access.)

I only just realized that original question was what Steve Harvey is thinking. No way to know for sure. But I suspect he is at least a little disgusted with it all. He doesn't really smile or show deep interest in the person in the audience. While I have never watched Steve Harvey before seeing this clip, I have watched a lot of interview shows in the past. The poker face seems to be the default for someone who does not really like what he is seeing, but knows he can't alienate any of his audience (live or broadcast) without risking his ratings.

-Patrick

Hmm sure looks like cold reading. The hit regarding the throat is a nice touch (by nice, I mean disgusting and shameful, but you get what I'm saying), so many possible problems associated with it, e.g. Thyroid issues, cancer, etc.

Would anyone here pay to see her from curiosity? She's on tour.....crazy that people eat it up.

Bill

The Soup busting the Long Island Medium...



Ron

I don't see much difference between her and many successful businessmen who would sell their granny for cash. Medium ship is a business shes just a business person who probably scores high on the psychopathic scale. They exist in all areas of business and are usually the ones making the most money.

In my own personal dealings I used make money for clients and end up with very little for myself until I learned how to turn down my empathy a few notches. Although I can't turn it off completely ( I've tried )it can be a useful skill.

I'm not saying what she did was right but these type of people rule the world. You will find them in key positions in every organization.

That was hilarious. Anyone who knows Long Island knows that Caputo is a remarkable embodiment of a certain Long Island stereotype.

No. Not a penny.

I wouldn't pay to see her out of curiosity. I would pay to learn. She is packing rooms. Are we?

I have gone to mediums to watch how they perform. In general they do so poorly, but some have good reading skills and good audience management skills. It is never any harm to check out what other acts are doing, and how they handle things.

What he said.
We do not see this from a lay persons view. It's nice to see a good reader at work. Maybe I don't like what he does, but the interesting thing is how he does it.

Pay to see her .... No probably not.

Interestingly enough when I lived in Spain I was working as a mentalist a couple of nights a week in a cabaret club in Benalmadena. One night the owner (an excellent singer) told me she and her sister had won tickets to see Derek Acorah, who if you don't know is a well known British Spirit medium who has done a ton of stuff on UK TV. He was appearing at a large hotel in Fuengirola and was sold out for his three night visit.

She asked me if I thought he was any good (obviously she thought I'd know because I can read minds). I said I have no idea and perhaps she'd let me know how she got on.

Back stage in the dressing room of our club three days later, she told me she was very disappointed as he didn't contact her dead father and everything he told people and I quote "you could have looked up on facebook". She went on to tell me that half the audience left at the interval because it was terrible.

Colin Fry, another UK spirit medium who just passed away, also appeared for a week at the Fuengirola theatre to sold out audiences. The theatre seats a thousand people and he did three nights at 20 euros a head. That's a swift 60,000 euros gross in three days for a total of 6 hours on stage and that's a decent motivation for many people to let their morals slip.

I met a lady who attended one of his shows, she told me she felt she'd been ripped off as he spent the first half an hour of the two hour show talking about being gay and his recent marriage, and then he only spoke to 6 people out of a thousand.

So cold reading to my mind is a great addition to any mentalists arsenal but to pull off a show using just cold reading you have to be very good. A better idea to my mind is to mix cold and hot reading.

And guess what .... while living and performing in Spain a friend of mine introduced me to Freddie Star who was staying with him on holiday. I had a chat with Freddie who was very interested in my act. During the conversation it transpired that Colin Fry was a friend of Freddie's and that Freddie had seen him work many times. Freddie then told me that in some of the shows he'd seen, audience members were offered the chance to fill out prayer cards stating the name and details of the person they'd like Colin to try to connect with.

So basically a Q & A act.

Finally Sally Morgan (our Sally). My mother in laws partner was a great fan of Sally Morgan who's show he'd seen multiple times in the hope she could contact his dead wife who had passed away years earlier from cancer. He'd asked me on many occasions if I thought she was any good to which of course I had no real answer. However his admiration and belief in her abilities dissolved when this happened.

http://mylespower.co.uk/2014/05/18/a-rat......sbrough/

I have worked many psychic fairs over the years and can honestly say I have met many readers who are genuine, kind and moral people who make a living using what they consider a true psychic gift. Some of them are excellent at subconsciously reading people and simply know what is on a sitters mind and the answers that will help them most, many of them don't know how they known and therefore attribute their skill to psychic ability and of course I have no proof they aren't psychic.

As for those guys standing up and stating they are talking to the dead, well that is a completely different ball game.

What a great post! Thank you for that, Scott!

And yes, mixing cold an hot reading work pretty well. Though, you need to use the "hot" information sensitively and don't just blurr out everything you have got.
However, to me, the prayer cards seem to be used for pr* sh*w. Or were these used during the show?