What Happens to 'Long Island Medium' Theresa Caputo's Brain While Channeling the Dead

05/09/2018 08:44 am EDT

Theresa Caputo has built a name for herself by allegedly channeling the dead to share messages with those they've left behind, but what exactly happens when the 51-year-old is giving a reading?

On one episode of her show, Long Island Medium, Caputo had her brain mapped during a reading to try and determine just that, with Paper magazine sharing in a new interview with the reality personality that Caputo's brain goes into a "meditative state."

"I was born like this, so I don't know any different," Caputo said. "To me, it is normal. I would always say, when I start channeling, spirit clears out my own personal thoughts, feelings and emotions. They replace them with signs and symbols for me to deliver messages."

The mom of two explained that she has felt her "gift" from a young age, though she wasn't initially aware of what was happening.

"Sitting in the classroom was very hard for me because I would sense and feel things," she said. "All I wanted to do was get up and move around. You would be staring at the teacher and I would just see images. You have to understand at that time, I didn't really know what it was that was happening to me."

It wasn't until she attended a "spiritual awareness class," which she described as a "safe place for me to share my gift with strangers," for her to fully comprehend what she could do.

Still, she didn't think people would actually be interested in a reading and didn't even create her own website until after Long Island Medium's premiere in 2011.

"Who was gonna want to come and see a medium?" she said. "I couldn't understand that."

Caputo communicates with "spirit" through symbols, and is presented with multiple images during each reading to help her decipher the messages the departed want to send to their loved ones.

Some symbols include someone eating oatmeal, which shows routine, a vision of the East and West Coasts, which implies communication issues and a hat pulled over a face, which means shyness.

While Caputo admits that she used to be overwhelmed by "spirit," she's since learned how to tune out when she needs to.

"I know how to release the energy and not hold onto it," she explained. "But for everyone I work with, it is hard, it is not easy. Sometimes in those moments, I just sit back and I say, 'Okay I need to say this because this is going to help them. This is what they are holding onto, what they need to release.'"

Photo Credit: TLC

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