Massimo Polidora is an investigator of the paranormal, lecturer, and cofounder and head of CICAP, the Italian skeptics group. His website is at www.massimopolidoro.com.
Theresa Caputo, a self-proclaimed psychic whose Italian origins are quite evident (she was born Theresa Brigandi), has been a celebrity for quite some time now thanks to her reality TV show Long Island Medium. However, all of her apparently paranormal demonstrations are perfectly explainable and, interestingly, most of them would not have been possible only a few years ago.
Caputo, in fact, seems to be the next evolutionary step of contemporary mediums after the likes of Rosemary Altea, John Edward, Sylvia Browne, and James Van Praagh: performers who, from the stage, point to members of the audience and claim to receive communications from the dead on their behalf. In the cases of Altea, Edward, Browne, or Van Praagh, the use of old cold reading techniques is quite clear.
These are techniques that undoubtedly require a quick mind, ready to grasp any information coming from the sitter and convincingly sell it back to believers as if it came from the spirits.