A very special guest showed up Tuesday at the Alerus Center. It was the star of the TLC show “Long Island Medium,” Teresa Caputo.

Many of you were probably aware of this and your mom probably paid the $40 to $90 to go see the show.

Theresa isn’t the first “ghost whisperer” to hold shows where a medium will approach random people in the crowd to give that person a message from a dead loved one.

Popular TV mediums in the past such as John Edward, Colin Fry or Kim Russo have also held cross-country tours where they performed the same techniques used by Caputo.

Many have questioned the validity of Caputo’s “psychic powers,” and by most accounts her abilities aren’t real.

Some of you may remember a “South Park” episode from 2002 where the main characters attend an Edward show (this was back in the day when Edward’s show “Crossing Over” was the popular medium show on TV).

This episode parodies as well as takes a skeptical eye to the popularity of TV psychics. I’m not a big fan of the show but there are some interesting points made in this episode. One thing that’s brought up is how easy it is for someone to perform as a psychic. There are some techniques that an observant person can use to predict who will be susceptible to their suggestions.

The fact that psychics can simply stage their reality shows and use techniques like “cold reading” that are common tricks used by magicians makes it easy for skeptical people to brush them off. There’s even a WikiHow page where you can learn how to do cold reads of people on your own.

So what is the draw of mediums? Why do shows like these become so popular? To quote “The X-Files”: “I want to believe.” All of us have lost loved ones, whether relatives, friends, or even pets or acquaintances. The reality is that death is scary and inevitable and it’s comforting to believe that a person can give us messages from people in a realm we can’t know (for a price of around $40 at the Alerus).

For some people it’s just fun to marvel and wonder at how a performer can perform mysterious tricks. It has the same draw as a magic show. As I was reading about Caputo’s appearance my mom mentioned that she was disappointed that she didn’t get a ticket.

“Why would you want to go to that show? It’s pretty obvious that TV psychics are fake,” I said.

My mom admitted that I was probably right, “I don’t know if she can really talk to ghosts, but it would make me happy to believe that the people I miss could still talk to me somehow.”

There are definitely things in this world that can’t be explained and debates about phenomena like ghosts, aliens and the Illuminati will probably go on forever. But as for TV psychics: I know that deep down people probably know they’re being duped, but maybe it’s healthy to reflect on a person you lost and  believe they’re happy where they are now. To hear they miss you or have messages for you could ease your grief.

Alisabeth Otto is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at [email protected]