Bryan Greene

The Ghostbusters aren't gonna save me from my own self.

After a couple years in the probably unpaid mentorship with Pat Longo from Long Island, Teresa begins practicing on family and friends.

She gives informal readings at home, and the word spreads in the community.

Soon, she's building a small business and doing private sessions, as one would do if they were, in fact, the eighth wonder of the world.

And this is where I get a little bit confused about most of these psychic healers.

They will not put themselves up for additional scrutiny, not scientifically, not by critics or skeptics.

They very rarely go into a hostile environment and they almost always know the mark.

I'd rather not discuss what I do.

While it's true that Teresa had her brain scanned for an episode of the Dr. Oz show, the Dr. Oz show is not a trusted source of scientific data, nor did they seem to really come to any kind of conclusion, except that when Teresa was doing a reading, her frontal lobe got activated.

Same part of your brain that gets activated when you're full of shit.

Before TLC came calling, she worked in her family oil company's business while she was doing psychic readings on the side.

Teresa does not have a down-on-her-luck story.

She comes from means.

Teresa has been afforded the opportunity to turn this parlor trick into a slick, professional operation.

And by her 30s and 40s,

she was a full-time media.

I think part of the reason why Teresa connects so well with the audience is that kind of yackle-doodle, local-yokel, Long Island accent mixed with the loud suburban mom persona.

Unlike Miss Cleo, Teresa Caputo came to television with an established community of people who already believed everything she was saying.

In 2011, TLC launched Long Island Medium.

To say the show was a hit would be an understatement.