In the last week or so this blog has been getting 15,000 to 30,000 page views per day. All that attention was generated by my last several posts which reveal that TLC’s Breaking Amish is based on a false premise. Given all this attention, I feel it is my ethical responsibility to point a questioning finger at another one of their shows–Long Island Medium.
Anyway, my point should be an obvious one–you can’t talk to dead people! Convincing people that you can talk to dead people is easy. All it takes is research and cold reading.
So please contact TLC and ask them to prove that the Long Island Medium is not a fake. If it’s real, it should be easy to prove. There’s even a $1 million dollar prize in it for them if they can prove that it’s real.
My posts over the last two weeks have generated a lot of interest. They have also generated a lot of something else as evidenced by a visit from a private investigator with veiled threats of a slander lawsuit. However, I believe in revealing the truth, even if the process or the potential consequences become scary.
X Amish Atheist 
Holy Cats!So I guess you are not going to be reviewing the new episode? Listen you keep doing what your doing. The truth shall set you free.
Her and every other psychic are fakes! From John Edward, Sylvia Brown, James Van Praagh and the rest. Now with the internet and social media, it even makes the psychic scammers job EASIER for them to get online and look up a few facts to before they do a reading!
Just as I said, ALL of them are scam artist! Now social media just made it easier!
http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/trending-now/psa-uses-psychic-demonstrate-dangers-sharing-personal-online-174017116.html
Hang in there. The articles and information were all out there. You have been respectful and brought up information that was already available, and even explained a lot of the details to the rest of us who might have watched and thought “Oh, this is what it is like for all ex-Amish.”
The lies are out there. The production company needs to answer to TLC. Then they need to step up and be honest.
Strange twist you were contacted by an investigator. Someone’s upset.
(If they do not like the blog , why even contact you directly? Usually a letter is the first salvo.)
When you threaten someones money gravy train, I am not surprised… They tried to put the “fear of God” in him… too bad that don’t work on us atheist!
Perhaps someone needs to research all TLC shows (I’m not asking you to do so, just musing). I have a friend who was on “Say Yes to the Dress” and it is edited to make them tell the story they want, even if it’s not really what happened. I’ve heard that “House Hunter’s” is fake, too. That some of the homes are actually friend’s homes that aren’t even for sale and some of the homes are houses that have already sold. I watch “House Hunter’s” just because I like houses. I don’t really care if it’s real or not.
Actually I’ve heard they must have already purchased a home just to qualify to be on House Hunters! Often if there’s furniture inside, it’s their own furniture! At least it’s not as fake as it used to be, with them sitting by the phone to see if their offer was accepted. But it always seems that which ever house is the least likely because they complain about it the most, will be the one they pick in the end. I guess that’s because they already knew more about that house than the others they looked at.
A friend of a friend was on a trash-to-treasure type show where she was supposed to buy something at a yard sale and fix it up. That was all staged; the producers picked out the item and paid for it, then told her to pretend to buy it.
I sometimes watch Jerseylicious, about a hair salon, but the main “characters” don’t even work there; they stage it all at night after the real salon closes. The owner agreed to have her salon be on the show but then the producers didn’t think her real staff was outrageous enough, so they cast people who didn’t get along or had interesting stories, and who lived so far away they would never really work there. Some weren’t even licensed.
I haven noticed on say yes to the dress that a lot of the “brides” are wearing wedding bands. Duh TLC! I know they’re already married and you’re just staging things after the fact. So lame.
Oops…House Hunters is not TLC.
I came back to your blog hoping you had reviewed the new episode! Love reading your blog thus far. Wanted to see if anyone else is curious if the names in Jeremiah’s tattoo are of his kids…
I just did. Please come back! 🙂
Theresa Caputo is NOT a fake. Obviously everyone has different opinions on mediums and psychics but I for one believe. I saw Theresa in person and the things she knew, lets just say she could have NEVER heard from anyone or found on the information on the internet or anywhere else for that matter. Obviously things in her show are “edited” and not 100% factual but she herself is the “real deal”, I truly believe her.
Oh bless your heart you don’t know any better do you. How much did she charge for you to see her. I’m only asking because if she likes making money off her “gift”. And nothing wrong with that there is a man james randi that will pay her a million bucks to show him. I can’t think of any reason a true spiritualist would not want to get paid a million bucks to prove their real.
I saw her in person too. She is the biggest fake of all! She asks open ended questions and waits for somebody to react. She was talking to one man about his deceased brother. She suggested they were close, they went on .vacations together, went camping or fishing and when the man did not react or otherwise confirm it, she dropped that line of questioning like a hot potato. It was a mixed group of people, all ages represented and she asks the ENTIRE room, who here lost their mother? Trust me, more than half that room lost their mother…..
Thank you for not giving into the legal threats! I am also a writer and have been threatened with numerous lawsuits for speaking the truth, but of course nothing ever comes of it since I am protected under the first amendment. It is sickening how people and companies attempt to scare people into silence. You have nothing to worry about, remember in order for something to be defamatory or libelous, it must be untrue and I have seen nothing untrue on this site.
Televised mediums may not be real, or they may use cold reading and be completely manipulative assholes — but please don’t lump this lady with the ridiculous hair and other scam artists into the category of regular people who are, in fact, open to a different realm and receive messages from those who have passed — without asking, and certainly without getting money from anyone or sitting anyone down for it. I am one of them, and I’m perfectly sane, too. Just because you don’t see it with your two eyes, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. And before anything I’ve said is misconstrued as being religious mumbojumbo, it’s not, and I’m not religious. 🙂
To be clear, I’m very skeptical of the possibility of communicating with or receiving messages from people that have died. I am curious, however, what it’s like for you. How do you receive a “message”? Does it just pop into your head? Does it come to you in a dream? Is it vague or does it include specific information? Can you give me several examples? I don’t believe it’s real but I also don’t think you’re lying or insane. Perhaps we can both learn something by discussing it 🙂
It’s different for everyone — I tend to have very direct premonitions/visions about things that will happen either in my life or within those close to me. You could even call it an extremely advanced intuition. Sometimes I have premonition dreams, but it’s usually in waking life. Sometimes the information you’re presented with is metaphorical, sometimes it is specific. It’s all about how you react to it, and typically, if you’re used to seeing/knowing things, you’ll know how to interpret it.
Both my sister and I have been ‘spoken to’ by our deceased mother, who died young, and we were very close to her. It’s only in the right ear (this is common among people who communicate) and it’s a very, very odd experience to describe. That communication is always specific; it’s a quick dialogue. The experience is not like thinking (like, “I think I’ll get a sandwich for lunch”), nor is it like hearing someone in the room. It’s like someone talking to you literally WITHIN YOUR EAR. Again, perfectly sane person here. This has happened only a few times to me.
I have a friend who hears direct communication and receives visuals — or, rather, she sees the energy of those who have passed. It’s all just energy moving through the universe. She has told me very specific things about me, my childhood, without asking questions first. And certainly nothing she would ever know. She has made statements that make my jaw drop. She doesn’t do the leading and cold reading that they do on TV. She just comes out with it.
After watching Long Island Medium the other day, it really does look staged. Theresa’s reactions about completely mundane coincidences are so overly done, it’s almost laughable. For instance, talking to a young girl whose father died: “Did you have a dream about your father?” and then when the girl says yes, Theresa clasps her hands over her face and gasps. Like, come on! Who wouldn’t have a dream about a recently deceased parent??
She’s a cartoon. Maybe she’s a medium, but the show is presented in such a silly way that it’s impossible to try to take her seriously. It’s disheartening, but it’s TV. It’s not real life.
Theresa seems like a nice lady who is genuinely trying to help people. You can tell when they interview her kids that they’re used to her going up to people and reading them while they’re out in public. Like at a grocery store or a restaurant. She’s not getting paid for just going up to random people. I kind of take an agnostic approach to the show. I don’t know what her deal is. But I have an open mind about it. I mean, not every show on TLC can be fake 😉 Honey Boo Boo is obviously not faking losing all those pageants!
She’s getting paid by TLC.
Good for you about speaking the truth about some of the misrepresentations found on TV. I wrote a post on my WordPress about Long Island Medium that I think you will enjoy.
mynameismikekelly.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/what-if-my-uncle-said-it-long-island-medium-edition/
Thanks! Your post about Long Island Medium is great, I loved it!
For Breaking Amish, it is definitely one hundred percent fake. I am so grateful to have found your blog on google when trying to figure out if I was the only one that thought a few things were not making sense. They paint the Amish out to be these horrible people and while I am sure that their lives are less than perfect, they are people as well. They are not all as cold and heartless as this group of people paints them out to be. I personally would rather watch a show regarding where the Amish people are NOW, after leaving the Amish, not documenting them on their supposed journey and decision of breaking away from the community.
As for the Long Island Medium, I was skeptical too at first. Then, I went to see her live and while I did not get “read”, I was able to see her give about forty accurate readings. I personally believe that she has some sort of ability since she was able to walk right up to a woman out of a crowd of a few hundred and say, “What’s with the footprints? The baby’s footprints? And the color blue?” Then, the woman pulled out a copy of her deceased son’s footprints that she had carried with her in her pocketbook. There are just specific aspects like that that really make me believe she is legit. However, you cannot blame her for making a living out of her gift, whether or not she is reading off of people’s expressions and body language or is actually reading people from the other side. Heck, if I had the gift of either connecting with the dead or being spot on with body language and facial expressions, I’d be exploiting the crap out of that as well. We all would.
Well, if you are going to say she is a fake, I would expect some evidence, not just expressing your doubts. Just because you don’t believe in something, doesn’t make it a fake. I don’t buy the dismissal that “she is just cold-reading,” because she says things often that she could not have just guessed at. Either she is getting advanced information, the whole thing is staged, or she is the real deal as far as I can tell.
Some things are so ridiculous that they can be dismissed out-of-hand. The existence of invisible pink unicorns is one. Talking to people whose brains have decomposed, is another.
Who cares if she’s a fake? It obviously helps a large number of people deal with emotions that otherwise haunt them, and she makes money off it. Both sides come out happy. Is your motivation to protect those that otherwise would be taken advantage of in some other form? If she didn’t con these people, someone else would, they want to believe.
“For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation will suffice.” – Joseph Dunninger
So you think it’s okay to take advantage of ignorant or gullible people?
To answer your question, no I don’t think it is okay to take advantage of anyone, but no amount of crying fraud is going to prevent anyone from letting her do it. Whether she is taking advantage of these people is a matter of opinion anyway. If you don’t agree with that, just ask the ones that got a “reading” from her. She gives them something they need and she gains something in return. Is she really exploiting those around her selfishly by making them feel better about the death of a loved one? Psychologists charge large amounts of money to manipulate people’s emotions and minds all the time, but no one is pointing them out and crying fraud. If the results are the same in the end, why is one method considered taking advantage of someone, but the other is not?
I’ve enjoyed reading your posts on Breaking Amish, but I have to point out a flaw in this particular post. You assert without a doubt that LIM can’t be real because people can’t speak with the dead– as if you know the absolute truth about this. I respectfully point out your post about the truth. The only truthful statement you can make with certainty is that you don’t believe people can talk with the dead. You really don’t know for certain.
Keep in mind that your own beliefs have altered and changed over the years, and have undergone numerous permutations. That’s normal– we all do that if we’re searching. Perhaps someday you’ll come full circle and believe in God again, but in a different way than when you began. Or maybe you won’t. Either way, it will only be what you believe– just as others believe different things based on their own personal experiences. That’s all any of us has when it comes down to it.
You bring up a good point, Shannon, but I have to disagree. Some claims are so patently ridiculous that they can be dismissed out of hand. I have no proof that Santa Claus doesn’t exist but that doesn’t require me to be open-minded about that. Christopher Hitchens said it best when he said, “What can be asserted without evidence, can also be dismissed without evidence.”
The idea that people can talk with dead people, is an assertion without evidence. The burden of proof in this case, does not rest upon me.
Scifake (dot) com is questioning the use of a child on the show. An episode featuring a little boy reduced to tears by this “medium” alleging to be in contact with this child’s dead father is reprehensible and despicable.Damage to this child’s emotional well being is not a fair trade off for ratings.
The one nice thing about being dead is that your earthly worries are over!
How miserably unhappy you would be in heaven if you could see or know
bad things happening in your loved ones life. I believe there is a short
time frame when you loose someone you love so dearly that a spirit can
communicate to a loved one that they are OK, but they do not call a
medium in Jersey! A special place in hell for fake mediums who make
lots of money fooling people.
It she is fake is needs to be exposed and TLC needs to held accountable too! They have made this woman rich 15 million plus on the grief of others emotions. I recently read where they send in staff to investigate groups and individuals before reading. Also on all her travels it’s all scripted because people have to sign releases so they get everyone’s information before she goes back in and reads them, it’s all too scripted!!