Allison DuBois: Difference between revisions

Allison DuBois (born January 24, 1972) is a controversial "research" medium who states that she has psychic abilities with which she can communicate with the dead. According to DuBois, she uses 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, creator of Moonlighting and many other hits, who is also 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, I have put people on death row. I wanted to make sure that was something that didn't bother her. But she assured me that she believed some people may have that coming."

She states both in her book and in the January 3, 2005 edition of Science Fiction Weekly , 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, that they have three daughters, and that the first case the character "consults" on in the show's pilot is with the Texas Rangers, the law enforcement agency with whom the real-life DuBois alleges she first worked.

DuBois's abilities

DuBois says that she became aware that she possessed 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 with their studies of mediums and psychic phenomena. Dr. Gary 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 stated she contacted 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).

Allison only works a limited number of criminal cases each year. She will only work directly with law enforcement and never directly with the family. She does not charge a fee or take money for her work on murders and missing persons cases.

According to DuBois, she has used her abilities to connect deceased loved ones to the living. Allison suspended these readings in 2004 to focus her efforts on the show Medium and her career as an author.

Criticism

Skeptics such as Paul Kurtz, chairman of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, (CSI), disagrees with the notion that DuBois is a psychic, calling it "barnyard nonsense." James Randi, of the James Randi Educational Foundation, asserts that people such as DuBois, John Edward and 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 says 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 using proper scientific controls. In light of Schwartz's assertion that "some" of his experiments with DuBois were, Randi questioned why not all of them were, and points to a report showing how problems such as sensory leakage are not addressed by Schwartz's methodology. Randi has also asserted that Schwartz's statements about the English woman's husband cannot be verified because Schwartz has not shared the data with the public. The scientific integrity of Schwartz's approach to such phenomena has also been called into question by CSI's Ray Hyman, as well. 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.

According to Randi, DuBois declined his invitation to the challenge and responded by calling him "irritating" and "unintelligent." He also said that DuBois posted a comment to her website saying she does not believe him to be honorable, accusing Randi of never having provided proof that the one million dollars exists. Randi responded by pointing out that they have done this both on their websites and on national TV, and that his foundation can provide notarized statements to that effect.

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

Former FBI profiler, behavioral science expert and MSNBC analyst Clint Van Zandt challenges DuBois's statements about 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?"

DuBois severed ties with Gary Schwartz in 2005 because of a book Schwartz had written about her.

External links

• AllisonDuBois.com
• NBC.com's Medium TV show website
• The Dubious Claims of Allison DuBois