Long Island Medium on TLC

Have you all seen it? Do you think she's 'cold reading' or do you think she's got 'it'??
She's a hoot for sure. The show is fun. I know it's edited and all the 'misses' get cut
and only the 'hits' are shown.

But what do you think?
Real or fake?

Is it this lady?

tlc.discovery.com...

And also whats your opinion about her?

reply to post by Biigs


Yep .. that's her. I just saw the show for the first time. It's a hoot.
She's got a good schtick going. It's in it's second 'season' now.

As far as if she's real or fake .. I don't know. There is editing and all that ..
I thought ghost hunters was real until I saw some Youtubes about how they
caught errors and fakery ....

Just wondering what others thought of the show.

reply to post by FlyersFan


I caught this show the other night.Wasn't really impressed.It may very well be she has abilities but with with way TV is heavily edited these days it's hard to tell if the show is legit.I may try to catch another episode later,then decide whether or not she is a fraud.

reply to post by FlyersFan


She's definitely cold reading and fishing...

My bet is that she also uses shills. I know I would, if I was her. Basically, prior to the appointment, you have someone on your staff go and sit next to close family at church/etc, start fishing conversations, Then, you gather this intel, and have it when you do the "session".

It's classic Vaudeville schtick, and I'm really surprised at how many otherwise skeptical people fall for it.

Watch it and keep the following in mind...

Pay attention to how much she gets wrong initially, but then fine tunes it until the victim/err uhh...client corrects it for her.

Watch her fish by using phrases like, I'm sensing trouble with a B..(looks at responses, if positive, keeps going, if not, tries another letter) or maybe M (sees the light in their eyes), M, yes that's it...

Sprinkle in some details from the shills, and whammo, you got a believer...

I read a report that the show is more about her personality then her abilities. She is adorable, I think she has a big heart, and is a lot of fun.

Teh problem with mediums and psychics is that people expect them to be 100% accurate. No one does their job 100%. I am a typist and I am no where near 100% accuracy.

George Anderson, probably the most famous medium, explained that they have to make it work several ways, first the spirits show them what they are trying to convey, they have to interpret the message, but the client has to interpret the message as well, leaving a lot of room for error.

He gave a great example where he was doing a reading, the spirit kept showing him a violin, so he kept asking the client if the spirit was a musician, music lover, loved concerts and the client denied it all and left dissappointed

George didn't know what went wrong. Till the client returned a month later and said he figured it out and it ends up that George or the spirit wasn't wrong, the spirits last name was Strad or a similar surname related to instruments.

So what is often trying to prompt information from the client, can often be confused as cold reading, which hacks do. But sometimes the clients are not very good at interpreting what the message is that is being portrayed and the medium has to keep prompting their minds.

George Anderson gave a lot of examples where clients came back with face palm moments, or they looked through the spirits or family history and figured out what the spirit was talking about.

What may be important to the spirit may not be a prominant memory to the client.

For example, I wrote a letter years ago to my deceases BIL, but it wasn't a defining moment to me. but my BIL may have thought it was. If I was prompted for a letter, I may go: what letter?

So what skeptics don't understand that these readings are not so cut and dry, and can be more complicated then as they would like to perceive it.

And no one knows if spirits maintain the same intelligence or know all when they pass. What if they are practical jokers or just idiots?

And to communicate with the medium, spirits can only use what the medium knows for interpretation. so the library they can use is pretty limited.

Maybe grandma loved, loved loved to visit Japan. And that would be a defining characteristic. But if the medium doesn't have one iota of knowledge of Japan or its culture, then the spirit couldn't portray that.
So if the spirit gives the letters BB, the medium doesnt' know what that means. She may be cold fishing or she may be prompting the client's memory. It could be the name of a favorite painting, the monogram on a favorite jewelry box, and the client doesn't get it.

That all being said. Do I think she is real? I don't know yet. I have done some research, I know she does this for a living abut her rates are actually pretty reasonable, I don't think its a scam. from neighbors and such, they said she has been doing this for ages so this isn't a new ploy to get money. And she had a good repuation long before the show.

I like the show.

As to if she is real,
Dunno, never met her.

I do know what she is claiming to do is very doable and she does have a tv show. You can't just get one because you make claims, I am sure they verified it. There are lots of mediums out there. And contrary to what a lot of people think, it is a REAL experience.

But personally, I think she is real.
I could be wrong though.

I've been to Hollywood and experienced what they do, and also how someone who is a medium has to fight Hollywood because they always wants to dramatize and make things bigger than they are. Of course it is to drum up viewers.

An acquaintance of mine had a show and has several other spirit shows that he helps produce, and he always has to fight to keep it within what he feels it should be. Hollywood/tv/movie industry loved to distort.

But really, with spirit contact, 99.8% of the time as far as I can tell, is loved ones popping in and letting someone know that they are ok. The other .2% is freaky, but most of the time it is a wonderful experience.

But I could in no way imagine doing it all of the time like they show in her doing it. That is something I couldn't do or handle,and I dunno how anyone can. For me it is spontaneous and only happens a few times a year, maybe less, and even that can be really weird. So, I don't know how someone could do it all the time.

I should add, that no, I don't think all mediums are scheisters... I just don't think she is genuine based on the two episodes I saw.

I've met some that I'd consider to be "real" a couple of times in my life. I don't really want to go into why I felt this way, but suffice to say that I'm not closed to the possibility, but I am aware of the tools and techniques these folks employ often enough. And really, it's not a bad thing. The medium makes some money, the family gets closure, etc. It's all good, as long as the medium isn't greedy.

She does it the same way I do,
at least her description is accurate.