Allison DuBois

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Allison DuBois (born January 24, 1972) is a controversial "research" medium who claims to have psychic abilities with which she can communicate with the dead. DuBois claims to use her psychic abilities to help law enforcement agencies across the country solve crimes, such as the Texas Rangers and the Glendale, Arizona police department, and that she also works as a jury consultant, working on "several caseloads" a year (though she cut her caseload in late 2004), and that in doing so, she has put killers on death row.

Her life is the basis of the TV show Medium. She was born in Phoenix, Arizona, and graduated from Corona del Sol High School in Tempe in 1990. In college, she worked as an intern at the district attorney's office in Phoenix. She received her B.A. in political science with a minor in history from Arizona State University.

The show

The NBC television drama Medium is based on Allison DuBois's book, [Don't Kiss Them Good-Bye]. The show was created by Glenn Gordon Caron, the creator of Moonlighting and many other hits, and who is one of the writers for the series. It is produced by Paramount Pictures and Grammnet, the production company owned by Cheers and Frasier alumnus Kelsey Grammer. Patricia Arquette was cast to play the role of DuBois, at the suggestion of Caron's girlfriend. DuBois stated in the January 9, 2005 TV Guide that she initially thought Arquette was too liberal to play her, remarking, "I mean, I have a gun." She claims both in her book and in the January 3, 2005 edition of Science Fiction Weekly [link], however, that the program closely resembles the truth of her own life, and several details of Arquette's character match DuBois's life, such as the name of her husband on the show, Joe, the fact that he is an aerospace engineer, the fact that they have three daughters, and how the first case the character works on on the show is with the Texas Rangers, the law enforcement agency with whom DuBois alleges she first worked.

DuBois's abilities

DuBois claims she became aware of that she had psychic abilities when she was 6 years old, though she refers to herself as a medium and profiler, rather than a psychic, because of the negative connotation she feels is associated with that term.

Allison DuBois spent four years participating in various tests at the University of Arizona to assist them in their studies of mediums and psychic phenomena with Dr. Gary Schwartz. Schwartz, Director of The VERITAS Research Project at the school's Human Energy Systems Lab, supports the notion that DuBois has psychic abilities, arguing in the March 6, 2005 TV Guide, "Anyone who's looked closely at the evidence can't help but come to the conclusion that there is something very real going on here." At their first meeting, DuBois accurately described a friend of Schwartz who had just died. Impressed, Schwartz conducted a series of experiments, including one in which DuBois claimed to contact the late husband of a woman in England, knowing only the woman's name. The woman, after reading a transcript of the session, affirmed that 80% of what DuBois said was accurate (Schwartz also gave the figure as 73% in another publication).

Skeptical critics such as Paul Kurtz, chairman of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal, or CSICOP, disagrees with the notion, calling it "barnyard nonsense." James Randi, of the James Randi Educational Foundation, asserts that people such as DuBois, John Edward or Sylvia Browne are easily able to give the appearance of success through cold reading techniques. For example, DuBois, when doing her first reading of Schwartz, told him that his deceased friend was telling her, "I don't walk alone," which Schwartz understood to be a reference to his friend's confinement to a wheelchair, which DuBois could not have known about. Randi claims that Schwartz leapt to an unsupportable conclusion, since the notion of "not walking alone" can mean any number of things, and "certainly does not describe being in a wheelchair." Randi also asserts that experiments that allegedly yield positive results of psychic powers, such as the ones done with DuBois, are not conducted under proper scientific controls.[link] In light of Schwartz's admission that "some" of the ones with DuBois were, Randi questioned why not all of them were, and points to a report [link] showing how problems such as sensory leakage are not addressed by Schwartz's methodology. Randi has also asserted that Schwartz's claims about the English woman's husband cannot be verified because Schwartz has not shared the data with the public. [link] The scientific integrity of Schwartz's approach to such phenomena has also been called into question by the [Two Percent Company] and by CSICOP's Ray Hyman. [link] [link] Randi has offered to have DuBois tested for his One Million Dollar Challenge, which awards that sum of money to anyone who can display psychic ability under proper scientific controls.

Schwartz declined Randi's invitation, saying, "The process of this prize lacks scientific credibility and integrity...[Randi] is not a scientist - he is a mediocre magician who loves the public eye." DuBois has responded by calling Randi "senile" and "unintelligent", and stating that she has "nothing to prove" to him, remarking that whereas believers such as herself live in the afterlife after they die, skeptics will "look around and go, 'Oops!'" DuBois has said that she does not believe Randi to be honorable, and questions the existence of the one million dollars, accusing Randi of never having provided proof that it exists. Randi and Two Percent have responded by pointing that they have done this both on their sites and on national TV, and can provide notarized statements to that effect.

DuBois also threatened Randi with legal action for using a photo of her from her website in his December 17, 2004 Commentary without her permission. [link] Randi removed the photo, and now uses a caricature of DuBois when mentioning her on his site, beginning with his December 23, 2005 Commentary. [link]

Former FBI profiler, behavioral science expert and MSNBC analyst Clint Van Zandt challenges DuBois's claims of helping law enforcement and putting people on death row, arguing, "If psychics were truly successful and if their results were not simply the consequence of trickery (at worse [sic]) or good interviewing skills (at best), then why don't law enforcement agencies have psychic detective squads, a real X-files Unit, or other ways to integrate these paranormal investigative capabilities?" [link]

Regarding DuBois's claims to have worked with law enforcement, the Two Percent Company contacted the Texas Rangers, which DuBois has claimed was the first agency she helped with her abilities, and were told by that agency that they have never utilized psychics, including DuBois. Attempts to investigate DuBois's participation with the Glendale, Arizona police department also met with negative results. DuBois claimed that Two Percent was "misinformed by those agencies". Two Percent doubts this, arguing that the agencies would hardly have reason to deny using psychics if doing so yielded the positive results that DuBois claims. Two Percent also points out that these two agencies were explicitly named on NBC's official website for the show as late as February 1, 2005, but were deleted by the following month. Two Percent also argues that even if DuBois were confirmed to have worked with these agencies, it would not confirm the notion that she has psychic abilities, or that any criminals were captured as a result. [link].

DuBois severed her ties with Schwartz in 2005 over a book Schwartz wrote about her. [link] [link]

External links

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