Allison DuBois

In 2010, DuBois made an appearance in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills at a dinner party hosted by Camille Grammer. She had a major confrontation with Kyle Richards and insisted that Richards would "never be emotionally fulfilled" by her husband. DuBois did not fare well in the episode (S1 Ep. The Dinner Party From Hell)[1] and was highly criticised for her behaviour.

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 DuBois accurately described a friend of Schwartz's who had just died. Impressed, Schwartz conducted a series of interviews, 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 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, which aired from 2005 until 2011 on NBC and 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 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."

"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 edition of January 3, 2005 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.

Skeptics such as Paul Kurtz and Ray Hyman say that DuBois does not have psychic powers. Skeptic James Randi says that people such as DuBois give the appearance of psychic powers 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 performed under such conditions, Randi questions why the rest of them were not, and points to a report demonstrating that a few of Schwartz's experiments were not performed according to standard scientific protocol. Schwartz's point-by-point response to Randi's criticisms was published in 2005.

In 2005, Randi offered to have DuBois tested for his One Million Dollar Challenge. According to Randi, DuBois declined his invitation to the challenge. In 2011, the JREF again issued the million dollar challenge to James Van Praagh, Allison DuBois, Sylvia Browne, Carla Baron, John Edward, and others to prove their abilities in controlled experiments, commenting, "James Van Praagh and Allison DuBois have turned the huckster art of 'cold reading' into a multi-million-dollar industry, preying on families' deepest fears and regrets," he says in a statement announcing the challenge. "They should be embarrassed by the transparent performances."

Allison DuBois (born January 24, 1972) is an American author and purported medium. DuBois has claimed to have used her psychic abilities to assist U.S. law enforcement officials in solving crimes, forming the basis of the TV series Medium.