Allison DuBois

Decision Points

Allison DuBois was born January 24, 1972. Allison Dubois is an American author and medium. DuBois has claimed to possess psychic abilities and use them to help U.S. law enforcement officials solve crimes, which formed the basis of the TV series Medium.

Her alleged powers as a medium were tested by Gary Schwartz of The University of Arizona. While Schwartz claims that his research supports DuBois' psychic abilities, skeptics are quick to point out the flaws in both Allison's claims and Schwartz's research. Some of her claims regarding work done in high profile investigations, such as her description of the Baseline rapist, have been shown to be either incorrect or of little investigative value. Communicating with the dead and extrasensory perception are considered to be pseudoscience as there is no credible evidence to back up such claims.

Allison Dubois 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. Allison is married to Joe DuBois and they have three daughters: Aurora, the oldest, Fallon, and Sophia.

Allison Dubois refers to herself as a medium and profiler, rather than a psychic, because of the negative connotation she feels is associated with the term psychic. She claims that she became aware that she had the ability to communicate with departed souls when she was 6 years old. Allison Dubois claims she uses this ability to connect deceased loved ones to the living, and also to help law enforcement agencies solve crimes, such as the Texas Rangers and the Glendale, Arizona police department, and that she used these abilities as a jury consultant. These law enforcement agencies have since either denied any such cooperation happened or the tips provided by Dubois were not helpful.

According to the TV Guide, Allison DuBois spent four years participating in various tests at the University of Arizona to assist with their studies of mediums and psychic phenomena. Gary Schwartz, Director of The VERITAS Research Project, claims 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, Schwartz says Allison Dubois accurately described a friend of Schwartz's who had just died. Impressed, Schwartz conducted a series of interviews, including one in which Allison 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 published his research in a book titled The Truth About Medium. According to a statement by DuBois, she does not endorse the book or Schwartz.

The television drama Medium, originally airing on NBC and as of 2009 moving to CBS 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 other television shows, who is also one of the writers for the series. It is produced by CBS Television Studios (having acquired the TV production arm of original producer 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 far to the left 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."

"Every episode is not a biography of my life, it is simply based on my life experiences. It is an accurate portrayal of my life and the people who share it with a little Hollywood magic thrown in," DuBois has said. She does state in both her book and in the January 3, 2005 edition of Sci Fi Weekly that the program closely resembles the truth of her own life. Several details of Arquette's character match DuBois's life, such as the name of her husband on the show (Joe) and the fact that he is an aerospace engineer. Both the character and the real-life Dubois have three daughters, and 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.