It’s been more than a decade since “Long Island Medium” first premiered on TLC. The show followed the lively and lovable Theresa Caputo as she navigated both the real world and the spiritual world. With her bumped blonde hair and long French manicure, she won the hearts of millions across the country as they tuned in to watch her use her unique gift to help everyday people heal from the loss of their loved ones. After 14 seasons, the show ended in 2019, and anyone who’s seen an episode will note that Caputo certainly makes channeling the departed look easy. However, in actuality, it was a long road to get to where she is with her gift today.
“I really did not know that I had a gift. I just thought what I was sensing and feeling, everybody else did. I thought it was normal. It wasn’t until later in my 20s to early 30s that I discovered I had this ability not only to connect with my own loved ones but also everyone else’s,” said Caputo.
She said that she struggled early on with her supernatural gift because she is a practicing Catholic, and she couldn’t understand why she had been given this ability. Caputo had many questions, but eventually, she decided to lean into her gift and use it to help others.
“I realized that, unfortunately, no matter who we lose or how they die, we here in the physical world are left with burdens and guilt. We might be left with a should’ve, could’ve, would’ve, maybe and only if. And at the end of the day, all of those emotions don’t give us the ability to heal. So what I do is about healing. . . I choose to use my gift for healing, and I don’t use it for anything else,” she explained, adding that she’s not the one to call about the winning lottery numbers or things like that.
Caputo’s favorite thing about her gift is being “able to restore someone’s faith and to sometimes, in a way, give them their life back.” It can be incredibly difficult for the living to move on after the death of a relative, friend or spouse. Oftentimes, people struggle to find closure, peace and happiness when a loved one departs. Caputo considers it a privilege and an honor to help people heal with messages from the other side.
Since deciding to practice as a medium more than 20 years ago, Caputo has helped countless individuals to reconnect with their loved ones who had passed away. One reading in particular is what led to her TLC show.
“So my manager Courtney Mullin, at the time, she’s involved in production. She had worked for MTV, and unfortunately, she lost her dad. She was having a hard time moving on with her life and she came for a reading. It had changed her life and had such an impact on her that she said everyone deserves to have this opportunity to have this gift of healing in this way. And she asked me if I wanted to do a television show,” Caputo recounted.
They filmed a pilot episode, which Caputo didn’t really think much of at the time. But little did she know, “Long Island Medium” would go on to be a hit that would lead to more opportunities and more healing for the hurting in America and beyond.
“Here I am over ten years later, still going strong, touring all over the country. . . Four books later, a podcast. I never thought in a million years that I’d be where I am or that this is where my gift had taken me,” she said. “When I put my gift in God’s hands all those years ago, I told him, ‘if this is my soul’s journey, then you open the doors and I will walk through them with my gift.’”
After the TV show ended, Caputo was presented with an opportunity to take her show on the road, quite literally. And “Theresa Caputo Live! The Experience” was born. The live tour, which has taken her all over the country, is now in its tenth year. During the experience, Caputo shares a bit about how she channels and communicates with what she refers to as spirit. Then cameras will follow her through the audience as she begins to pick up on mystic messages.
“Once I start sensing and feeling, I allow spirit to guide me around the space. I have no idea who’s going to get read, where I’m going to end up. I just start saying things that mean absolutely nothing to be, but they’re life-changing to the person I’m standing in front of. We have cameras . . . and screens set up, so it’s literally like watching ‘Long Island Medium’ live,” Caputo explained.
In her channeling, she always asks spirit to confirm the messages with specific details that are relevant to the person she’s reading.
“What I and spirit do is validate it with such unique things. With every healing message that they have me deliver, spirit has to validate it with something completely unique to that person. I have spirit communicate with their personality. Everyone’s loved one’s personality is different. Spirit might talk about things that happened years ago to remind their loved ones of a happier time. Spirit might validate their messages with things that have happened since they died. It validates for us that they’re not waiting for us at the cemetery. They’re living life with us through our eyes,” she described.
Caputo said that although she makes it look easy, channeling is a difficult process that requires much emotionally, physically and spiritually.
“It’s the hardest thing for me to do. To stand in front of someone and have spirit take us on this emotional rollercoaster healing so much pain, sorrow, loss and grief. And then in the next breath, they’re going to have me do something to bring a smile to everyone’s faces or even laughter throughout the entire theater. And for me, that’s the greatest gift that they could give someone or any of us,” she expressed.
Recognizing that some people may be skeptical about what she does, Caputo had this to say:
“Everyone has a right to their own opinion, and I get it. Honestly, I’m the first one to say that what I do is absolutely crazy. . . But, I’m not asking people to believe in me. I’m not asking people to believe in mediums. I don’t care if people don’t believe in what I do. I want people to believe in themselves and to believe in an afterlife.”
Caputo is bringing her live tour to Savannah very soon, and she encourages the public to come out and take part in the experience.
“It’s a night of faith, hope, peace, comfort and healing. . . Over the past several years, we’ve all lost something. We might not have lost a loved one. But we’ve lost something. Maybe it’s faith in ourselves. Maybe it’s faith in our lives, our careers. Maybe people here in the physical world. . . Spirit, they restore our faith. . . They’re so encouraging. It’s just so empowering,” she said. “It’s almost like a cleanse. You know when you want to lose a couple of pounds and you need something to kickstart your diet and you do a cleanse? It’s almost like spirit does that for us . . . like they’re taking away all of the negativity, the burdens, the guilt that we’re carrying. And they’re saying release that to us. Just embrace life with happiness and joy knowing that the soul bond can never and will never be broken.”
Caputo’s live experience in Savannah will take place on Sunday, April 23 at 3 p.m. at the Johnny Mercer Theatre. For more information and tickets, visit savannahcivic.com/events/theresa-caputo-live.
