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My final reflection contains all of my final thoughts about my research into psychic mediums.

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This video uses red flags to point out flaws in this very famous psychic medium. The point that stuck with me the most was that she uses "old tricks" to fool her audiences. This means that Theresa uses a lot of Truth by Verbosity (as this is the most common red flag for psychic mediums). Theresa asks a large number of questions to her audiences with only a few being correct statements or questions. Though these few are powerful and stick with audiences. This tactic becomes easier to believe as she has control of the content she airs and how it is cut.

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5 Reasons Why Long Island Medium Is Totally Fake

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This video details a medium's opinion if you should practice mediumship. The red flag most prominent in this video is mystical energy. The woman speaking uses the terminology of spirits and energy(vibrational frequency and dimensions) in almost every point she makes. She is also very general statements that can apply to all people such as "did you have an imaginary friend as a child?".

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12 Ways To KNOW You're a MEDIUM and Should Practice Mediumship

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Here are signs that you have mediumship abilities. There are ways to tell, starting off in early childhood, that point to the you being sensitive to spirit. A spiritual medium brings messages of love and hope through from spirit, from loved ones passed over, to those still incarnate here on the earthly plane.

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This video is a clip from the reality show Long Island Medium. It includes a reading where a table appears to move on it's own. There are many red flags in the video including ancient wisdom/spirits and mystical energy. They are seen using sage in the video as an ancient way of beginning the reading. Theresa also may be using proof by verbosity as the clips are cut in a way that the viewer only hears the questions that are correct.

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Long Island Medium and the Magic Table aired April 29 2012

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This picture symbolizes a ghost of a relative. Psychic mediums are most often used to speak with a deceased relative. This emotional connection can influence a medium's client to be less skeptical of the session. This is a manipulation tactic used by most mediums. This may make the client more inclined to believe proof by verbosity.

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This image is a meme of a comedic looking psychic medium. I have included this image because it makes light of how a portion of the general population imagines psychic mediums to be(ridiculous). A red flag could be his obnoxious hairpiece, used to symbolize a psychic medium's reputation to distract in order to appear all-knowing.

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This picture is of a mysterious looking woman with an ominous crystal ball. I have included this because from my research this is the most common red flag used by psychic mediums. This woman is what I envision when I imagine a psychic.

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The third website I have included is the about portion of one of the most famous mediums in the World. Theresa Caputo has a reality show called Long Island Medium. I have included the about page because it consists of how she describes her "gifts" and her appointment information. Theresa includes multiple red flags. The first red flag I identified was Confusion with Correlation VS Causation regarding her anxiety. She states that her anxiety started getting better as she became practising as a medium. This could be correlated with an increase in salary, scenery, etc. The second red flag I identified is mystical energy. She clearly states that she was suppressing her "energy" for years. I have included Theresa has a waitlist and you must book appointments years in advance because of her fame.

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I'm the Long Island Medium (maybe you've heard of my reality show?), a New York Times best-selling author, and an incredibly busy mom, wife, and all-around family gal. I was born and raised on Long Island in Hicksville, NY and have been married to my husband Larry for 28 years. We have two children, Larry and Victoria, and I'm close to my parents, who are still very much alive. I also have a brother named Michael and a feisty Yorkie Louie, and two french bulldogs Bubba and Bentley (yup we have them now!).

I've been seeing, feeling, and sensing Spirit since I was four years old, but it wasn't until I was in my 20s that I learned to communicate with souls in Heaven. After suffering from debilitating anxiety and trying to manage it on my own and with a therapist for years, my mom introduced me to a spiritual healer and teacher named Pat Longo. After just one session, she told me that I was suppressing Spirit's energy, which caused a lot of my anxiety, and helped me learn to channel Spirit through my chakras and release it with my words. I began to heal and come into my own.

When I accepted my gift, I decided to use it to deliver healing messages that would help people learn, grow, and embrace life. I've been a practicing medium for over ten years now and tour the country with my live show "Theresa Caputo Live The Experience." I've also written three books: There's More to Life than This: Healing Messages, Remarkable Stories, and Insight from the Other Side (Atria Books, 2013), which debuted at #2 on the New York Times best seller list, "You Can't Make This Stuff Up" Life Changing Lessons from Heaven (Atria Books, 2014) I'm very excited for you all to read my new book NY Times bestseller "Good Grief" Heal Your Soul, Honor Your Loved Ones, and Learn to Live again (Atria Books 2017). Considering I started this work with just a business card and word of mouth, I pinch myself when I think about what a crazy ride it's been for a typical Long Island mom!

Clients, fans, and the media always ask me to describe how I receive information, and it's hard to put into words because I see, hear, and feel things differently than we do in the physical world. Spirit mostly speaks to me through a sixth sense-a kind of feeling and knowing. When I get information, it feels like very strong intuition, or recall. Spirit also uses a vocabulary of signs and symbols that they show me during a reading; over time, I assigned words, phrases, and meanings to certain images I was shown, and then through trial and error, Spirit helped me add new ones until we created an entire vocabulary for us to work with. I translate my signs and what I feel as best I can, and then deliver the messages, but it's the client's job to interpret how the meaning is significant. It's like piecing together a puzzle, and can sometimes sound like guesswork, but Spirit speaks "another language," at another speed, and in another dimension. My job's not easy lol!

I'm grateful for an ability that's brought countless people comfort and joy, helped many believe in an afterlife, led others to trust that their loved ones are safe and at peace, and shown them that those souls are guiding, encouraging, and loving them from the Other Side. My wish for everyone I meet is that Spirit gives them a message that brings them the most peace at that moment.

If you're interested in a reading, please know that I was booked for two years before the show first aired, and in addition to that I had a very extended waiting list. The people that have emailed, written in or filled out the online form have been added to that list. Unfortunately being on this list does not guarantee an appointment. The people featured on Long Island Medium are selected from all of the lists. Factors include location, availability, and who feels comfortable being on television are taken into consideration.Because it's just impossible to schedule so far out.I am so incredibly honored and grateful for all of your love and support! I am truly blessed by all of you! Thank you for all your patience and understanding <3

XOXO THERESA

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I'm the Long Island Medium (maybe you've heard of my reality show?), a New York Times best-selling author, and an incredibly busy mom, wife, and all-around family gal. I was born and raised on Long Island in Hicksville, NY and have been married to my husband Larry for 28 years.

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This website is a testing tool to test ESP ability. To be considered psychic the participant must accurately choose the correct card so many times in a bundle. Though psychic mediums target communication with the deceased throughout my research and finding real-life mediums I have discovered that most mediums also consider themselves able to predict future events. This is often done to reinforce the medium's claims from the deceased. For example, if my grandfather was communicating with me through a psychic medium he could tell me I am going to succeed in this course. This positive outcome for myself helps reinforce my belief.

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Advanced ESP card guessing (Zener Cards) test

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Develop, practice and explore your ESP (telepathy and clairvoyance) with this free advanced online Zener card guessing ESP Test

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This article provides the reader with 5 popular psychic medium myths. Though this website attempts to identify myths I chose to include it on my wall because it seems to be in favour of psychic mediums. The myths are not backed by science and attempt to convince the reader that psychic mediums are accurate based on red flags. One red flag I identified was mystical energy. The article tells the reader that psychic mediums " tune into your individual energy field that contains information about your life".

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Suzie Price, also known as 'Ghost Whisperer Suzie', is one of Australia's most popular psychic mediums. Working in the industry for over 17 years, Suzie has been exposed to many scepticisms surrounding the psychic industry, here she debunks the top five myths regarding psychics and mediums.

Myth 1: Psychic mediums are scammers and use cold reading to con us

"There are always people who treat others unfairly or take advantage of them and there are these types of people within the psychic industry. However, con artists are generally easy to spot. They make claims of being able to help you, make you money or save you from bad luck. These scammers are never around for very long as they end up with a bad reputation.

"When choosing a psychic or medium, always do your research and ask others for feedback. If other people have recommended a psychic you give yourself a better chance of having an enjoyable experience."

Myth 2: If psychics were real, wouldn't it be easy to find missing persons?

"There are many real life cases of psychics or mediums having helped find missing persons but it doesn't happen often. Having been involved in a few missing persons cases on a professional level, I can say it's not as simple as it sounds. The cases I have worked on were unsolved suspected abductions and murders from decades before. I was able to connect with spirits and I was given impressions of different circumstances surrounding their deaths including locations, however there are hundreds of different locations that may have fit the impressions I had.

"Much of the information mediums may receive in crime cases is very general and not specific enough to be of real help. Even when you do have some specific information it can be hard to find a connection that will lead to a breakthrough. I do feel that with the right circumstances and a good connection, psychics can be of valuable assistance in finding missing persons but unfortunately there are many factors that affect the information and how we relate to it, so it's often not precise enough."

Myth 3: Psychic mediums can read minds

"Psychics and mediums do not and cannot read minds. They can tune into your individual energy field that contains information about your life but they can't read your mind or know what you're thinking. We receive information through our psychic senses about the person we are connecting to and information comes through in bits and pieces.

"We may see images, hear brief noises, voices or words, and/or feel an energy shift in different parts of our body, which indicates a message. All this information has to be put together to make sense and it can be hard to relay what different things mean. The information can be about places, events or people related to their past, present or future."

Myth 4: Psychic/mediums research everyone in the audience before a show

"It's very rare to come across someone who'd be able to do this. I'm sure with expertise and time it'd be possible to gather some background information on some of the people attending the show. However, that person then needs to study the information and memorise it.

"To think about how long this would take to do and how difficult it would be to remember everything, it isn't worth the time and effort required to do it. It's much easier for a psychic to tune into their abilities than it would be to do all that research and studying before each show."

Myth 5: Psychic/mediums can predict the future

"Psychics and mediums do not actually predict the future. What we can do is tune into energies connected to future events in people's lives using our psychic senses and give insights into possible outcomes. Using tools such as tarot cards, palmistry and astrology, combined with information that we gather through our psychic senses, we can often give insights into possible future events with some degree of accuracy. However, we can get it completely wrong and can misinterpret the information we receive.

"This is why we require acknowledgement from the client as to whether the information we are sharing resonates with them. It should be a perfect fit and even if it doesn't make sense to us, it should make sense to them. The imprint of the information may be what the person was projecting into their energy field at the time but then they change that vibration to a different frequency and attract a different outcome. The future is written in sand and can be altered."
Images and gifs: Getty, Giphy, Columbia Pictures, Disney

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Are psychics legit? 5 popular myths about mediums busted

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Psychic mediums have always been surrounded by mystery and scepticism. How do they know what they know and why? Are they legitimate or do they use dishonest techniques to scam the public? 'Ghost Whisperer' Suzie Price busts the top five myths about psychics.