By Denny Patterson

For Theresa Caputo, being a practicing medium is not just her job – it’s her life.

On April 25, 2022, she will bring her brand new live show entitled The Experience, to the Coral Springs Center for the Arts. In addition to sharing personal stories about her life and explaining how her gift of communicating with the dead works, she will deliver healing messages to audience members and give people comfort knowing that their loved ones who passed are still with them, just in a different way. 

Best known for her long-running TLC show Long Island Medium, Caputo has been interceding with the dearly departed to offer solace to their grieving families on earth for over 20 years. She recently launched her new series, Long Island Medium: There in Spirit, on Discovery+, which combines the essence of the original show with the realities of life during the COVID-19 pandemic, and she also started a weekly podcast called Hey Spirit!, which drops new episodes each Thursday at 12:00PM. 

OutClique caught up with Caputo to talk more about The Experience, ongoing projects, and her special gift.

Denny Patterson: We are very excited that you are bringing The Experience to South Florida. Is this your first time touring since before the pandemic?
Theresa Caputo: No, I was doing live events outside during 2021, and then in the fall, I went back out and did all the shows that were postponed in 2020. However, this is my first tour where we are starting from scratch. We put together a fresh route, and it’s such a big improvement from last year. That’s a good sign that things are coming back. 

DP: For those who have never been to one of your live shows, what can they expect?

TC: The thing that I love about The Experience, and the reason why I call it an experience, is because it truly is a life changing experience. I come out onstage, I give a little speech on how I reconnect with the souls of the departed, because believe it or not, there are some people that come to the show and have no idea who I am [laughs]. I kind of explain what they can expect for the next two hours, and then once I start sensing and feeling Spirit, I walk the stage, Spirit will guide me around the space, and I will start delivering messages right in front of people. The thing that I love about that is, even though you might be in a theatre with 2,000 people, I feel like we’ve created something special. It’s still an intimate moment. I’m down in the crowd, cameras are following me, so no matter where you’re seated in the theatre, you will be able to witness it up close and personal.

DP: You discovered your gift of communicating with the other side when you were four years old?

TC: Correct, that’s when I remember seeing the first souls. I remember saying to babysitters and people around me things like, tell that woman to get out in front of the TV. They’d be like, there’s no one standing in front of the TV. As I got older, I kind of blocked it because I thought it was normal. I thought everyone could sense and feel the things I was, but as I got older, I realized people weren’t feeling the same things I was. Then I kind of suppressed my gift. I didn’t acknowledge it, and I kind of ignored it in a sense. That’s when I started to struggle with my anxieties. I didn’t realize that I was also empathic, which means I would take on other people’s emotions and feelings, and after I had my daughter Victoria, I could hardly leave my house at that point. It was so bad. I went to a spiritual awareness class to kind of learn how to meditate and quiet my mind, and through that, I discovered not only was I able to connect with my own departed loved ones, but everyone else’s. I try to really express to people why I do what I do. I want people to know that they have that connection with their own loved ones. That soul bond can never be broken. All those things that go on around them that they might think are a little odd or weird, or remind them of their loved ones that have died, I say those are little hellos from heaven. That’s them letting you know that they are with you at that exact moment. As a medium, I’m able to validate. We’re not crazy. We’re not trying to make ourselves feel better. I mean, how would I know some of these things?

DP: I’m glad you mentioned being able to block or suppress your gift because that was my next question. Are you able to ever turn it off, or are spirits constantly trying to connect?

TC: It’s hard for me to explain. I was born this way, and this is the other thing I always try to stress to people. We’re born a certain way, and I always felt there was something missing in my life. Like, deep in my soul, and I could not understand what it was. Once I embraced my gift, that’s when I realized, okay, this is what’s been missing. I can say suppress, turn it on, turn it off, but more or less, I can always sense and feel something, but it’s whether if Spirit continues to make me feel things. I can feel that there’s a father energy present, the soul would then bring me through how they died, I might have shortness of breath or feel tightening in the chest, then they make me feel the burden or guilt that the person is carrying connected to their loss. If I feel those three things, that’s when I say something. I’ll sometimes just feel something, but what am I going to say? Oh, your dad’s here, but there’s nothing else. Not everyone needs or wants to hear a message. So, it’s not so much if I turn it on or off, it’s whether if Spirit really pushes me enough or shows me enough things to get me to say something. 

DP: Do you remember the first spirit you interacted with?

TC: The first soul I remember seeing is my great grandmother. The first soul I remember communicating with was my grandmother. Like, actually communicating with her. I had a hard time with my dad’s mom’s passing because of my gift. I didn’t understand. It was almost like, how could she be in the casket when I can still hear and feel her? She’s not dead. I remember after her funeral, we were back at her house and I was standing by a window. My cousin came up to me and was like, who are you talking to? I’m like, I’m talking to nanny. He’s like, nanny’s dead. We just came from her funeral. You’re talking to the drapes. He still tells that story to this day. I was 16, but no one ever made a big deal about things I would say. I come from a very spiritual and strong faith family. They believed in an afterlife and embraced communication, signs and symbols. As a child, I would just talk and babble, but for me to remember the exact moment where I was actually communicating with someone that had died was the day of my grandmother’s funeral. 

DP: We have our good spirits, but we also have our fair share of bad spirits. Have you ever run into any kind of dark, negative, evil energy?

TC: I run from them [laughs]. I believe I don’t have anything to do with anything negative. When I was struggling with my gift, I literally put it in God’s hands and was like, if this is what I was meant to do, I will walk through every door you open, but I want to use my gift for the highest, positive concerns to help people move on with their life after the loss of a loved one. I only want positive, empowering messages. Things that are going to help us. I remember doing a live show and channeling a young girl who was murdered by her boyfriend. She was talking to her mom, and I could see that there was someone below her. It’s just the way that I see the souls. 

I could see a shadow, but it was lower from her, and I couldn’t feel or sense anything from that energy. She said, can you please tell my mom that he is remorseful, that he is sorry, and he realizes how he destroyed her and ruined her life? I was struggling with that. How am I going to say this? I also realized over the years that it’s not up to me to determine what a spirit has me say or not say. So, I repeated it to the woman, and she broke down in tears and said that’s why she came here. On her way over, she asked her daughter to tell her if he was remorseful and knew what he had done. There are so many moments like this, especially during the live show, you sit back and say, how can that be? It’s honestly one of those mind blowing things and also how everyone grieves and heals differently. There is no right or wrong way, and that’s what she needed to hear that day.

DP: Last year, you launched your spinoff series Long Island Medium: There in Spirit on Discovery+. How has it been received by viewers?

TC: Some people just complain because they can’t watch it on TLC [laughs]. I’m not in charge of that, I just talk to the dead. The great thing about There in Spirit, we filmed during the pandemic and did it virtually. Before that, I started my podcast Hey Spirit! It’s great because not only now am I able to meet people in the Tri-State area, but I’m meeting people all over the world. Hong Kong, Australia, it’s just incredible, and there’s still that intimacy, even though it’s through a computer. The other special that we did was on 9/11, 20 years later. It’s hard to celebrate anything after the loss of a loved one. Their birthday, the anniversary of their death, but the thing that I think a lot of people realized, and I most certainly did, was that these families have to relive their loved ones’ deaths in detail minute by minute, second by second every year. Even after 20 years, how they were still searching for peace and comfort, that special was one of the most important things, besides having my children, that I feel I’ve ever done with my life. That’s how powerful it was. 

DP: Have you been connecting with a lot of spirits lately that have died from COVID?
TC: I have, and I think what brought a lot of peace to people who lost loved ones to COVID or just during that time, there were readings where souls would come through and say, tell them I heard them say goodbye over FaceTime. Tell them the nurse did come in and tell me that she called everyday. I’ll never forget this one woman who was wondering if the nurse really went in, held her mom’s hand, and told her that she called. The spirit said to me, tell my daughter that the nurse would come in, hold my hand, and give me a kiss from my daughter every day. I just got the chills telling you that. I think this brought comfort to a lot of people because they couldn’t be there with their loved ones when they passed.  

DP: How do you respond to people who don’t believe in mediums or the paranormal and believe it’s just a hoax?

TC: Listen, I respect it and I get it. I’m the first one to say that what I do is absolutely crazy, but this has nothing to do with me. It’s not about people believing in mediums or what I do. I want people to believe in themselves and an afterlife. How would I know these things? I didn’t make it up. These are personal things on how you feel, what you experience, what you see, what you feel. Nobody can tell you those things or make them up, so at least believe in an afterlife. I get that it’s hard to understand something like this. We want scientific proof. Years ago, I was on The Dr. Oz Show, and he had a brain expert read my brain while I was reading someone. It showed that I’m able to access a part of my brain that we typically don’t. I would always say, I don’t know how this works and it’s almost like I have no personal thoughts, feelings, or emotions. It’s almost like my mind goes blank. He showed at one point when I was channeling and talking, there was no brain activity. It was literally a flat line. I never try to prove or defend my gift, but look, this is what I’ve done. People will ask what it’s like, but I don’t know! I’ll find out when I get there!

DP: You’re still learning yourself.

TC: One thousand percent. People will come to the show and be like, this is my fifth live show or this is my third live show, and it’s amazing how every show is different. That’s because the messages and the personality of Spirit is different. I love that emotional roller coaster that they bring us on by feeling all the pain, sorrow, loss, and grief, and then in the next moment, they have us smiling and laughing. Again, it’s a gift of giving us that permission to live. That everything is okay. Don’t feel guilty about embracing life. Know that I’m just with you. Doing what I do is the farthest thing from, quote unquote, normal, but to me, I feel so complete. I couldn’t imagine doing anything else.

DP: Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you would like to mention or plug?

TC: Just my podcast and the live tour. If someone wants to possibly be a guest on Hey Spirit!, I have a hotline. It’s 1-866-TCaputo. Call, leave a message, and someone might call you back!