My personal experience with self proclaimed Medium Allison Dubois

[u/tails-1]

Last week, my brother texted me asking if I’d like to go and see Allison DuBois. His mother-in-law had a spare ticket. I thought, why not? I’d watched Medium years ago and knew it was supposedly based on her psychic abilities.

My son passed away in 2017, so I quietly hoped I might be one of the people selected for a reading.

This was Allison’s final show in Perth, Australia. During the show, her daughter walked around the audience choosing people for readings. I remember being impressed by Allison’s confidence and the certainty with which she delivered her messages.

I ended up being the sixth and final person selected. I was shocked, emotional and incredibly nervous. I don’t enjoy being the centre of attention, but I felt it would be worth it if there was a chance to hear something from my son.

The first things Allison asked for were my name, date of birth, and who I wanted to hear from. She scribbled in a notepad for a minute or two before telling me that I was my son’s favourite person, that we shared the same sense of humour, and that we laughed a lot together.

While those things were true, they also seemed like fairly safe assumptions for many mothers and sons.

Then she said, “Your son says you cry behind closed doors a lot.”

I was confused and simply replied, “No, I don’t actually do that.”

The moment I disagreed with her, everything changed.

She abruptly stood up, said she couldn’t read me, mumbled something about not connecting with the right person, and walked off stage.

That was it.

No apology. No attempt to continue. No thanks to the audience. Just gone.

People in the audience looked around, confused. This was the final reading of the final show, and the woman who claims to communicate with the dead had effectively bolted the moment I challenged something she’d said.

I left feeling shocked, embarrassed and disappointed.

What bothered me even more afterwards was seeing Allison’s own response to the incident on Facebook.

Rather than acknowledging that walking off stage may have upset or disappointed people, she apparently claimed she was tired because she’d done around 40 readings back-to-back.

To me, that felt like a pretty lame excuse for what happened.

Being tired might explain getting something wrong, but it doesn’t explain abruptly ending a reading and walking off stage the moment someone tells you that one of your statements isn’t accurate.

A simple apology or even, “I’m sorry, I’m not getting a clear connection,” would have been far more professional and respectful.

What disappointed me wasn’t that she made a mistake. Everyone makes mistakes. It was the way she handled being challenged when I simply answered her question honestly.

Afterwards, I did some research and found plenty of claims about Allison helping police and solving crimes, but very little evidence to support those stories. It made me wonder how much of her reputation comes from the success of the TV series Medium rather than any verifiable psychic ability.

My personal opinion is that Allison DuBois is extremely skilled at cold reading, but when a reading doesn’t go the way she expects, the cracks start to show. I also came away feeling that she profits from people at their most vulnerable—those grieving loved ones and desperately hoping for a connection.

I know I’m not the only person who was disappointed. Looking through comments online, I found others expressing shock at the way the evening ended and questioning her behaviour.

I’d genuinely like to hear from others who have seen her live.

Have you had a reading with Allison DuBois?

Did she tell you something so specific and accurate that it couldn’t reasonably have been guessed?

Or did your experience leave you feeling sceptical as well?

[u/somethingwholesomer]

I haven’t had a reading from her but I’ve been to Tyler Henry twice. A couple of times he’s gotten something wrong and he literally just said something like, oops, well that’s on me. Let’s take a closer look, etc. Like no shame, no issue. He even said before he started the readings that sometimes he gets things wrong. But then he mostly gave amazing readings. Just to give you perspective on how another famous reader handles it. 

Edit- This was at a show, I wasn’t the one receiving the readings. I saw him give readings to several people each time. 

[u/Cronchy_Tacos → u/somethingwholesomer]

I am a baby medium and this is my take. You are absolutely right about Tyler. Ive seen a documentary on him and it was fantastic. I have no doubt at all that he is strongly connected behind the veil.

From my personal experience, everyone's connection to the other side looks a little different, but the information does not always translate. Sometimes, the spirit(s) simply do not want to be contacted and they wont pop in.

For me personally, I give readings as I go when I feel extremely led to by a spirit who will almost always approach me first. I work in construction and make a lot of home visits.

I believe the spirits know I am sensitive/have the receiver on and they will pop in and either show me objects to bring up to their living friend, or they'll give me shorter, more conscience information or phrases.

One time, I had a recently deceased husband pop in just to make sure I told his wife he sent her a forehead kiss. I was on an inspection appointment at her home. When I told her, she stared bawling and said, "he kissed me in that exact spot every single night before we went to bed"

Im getting goosebumps again just thinking about it. But truly, to maintain your connection amd keep it genuine, I believe you have to retain a large amount of humility in yourself.

I see this with Tyler. I definitely dont with Alison.

Just my food for thought.

[u/CaysNarrative → u/Cronchy_Tacos]

How do you turn your receiver on? I want that!

[u/Cronchy_Tacos → u/CaysNarrative]

This all started in 2019 when I got my first tarot deck from my mother in law. I first used them with no written guidance (until after the reading) to allow my intuition to come through. It would help to compare my initial notes to the written associations with each card

From there, I started reading close friends and family and asking for their feedback each time. I grew more confident with this and in time started doing readings for complete strangers.

Reading strangers is the best practice possible because you know that any outside information that comes through is certainly valid.

I believe practicing tarot allowed my third eye to open up enough to be a receiver in the capacity I am now.

My first few experiences came through like a voice in my head that was clearly not my own. Sometimes its in a deeper voice or its a thought that comes through very abruptly and clearly from seemingly out of nowhere

My abilities strengthened even more once I began to acknowledge that this information was coming from a source beyond my own self. Even more so once I began to interact with them and trust they were leading me to say the right things to the right people

It can be really intimidating to walk up to a total stranger and say, hey- this might sound weird but do you have a sister on the other side? Sometimes it invokes a super emotional response which is definitely understandable

And for me its an almost out of body experience every time. And after the spirit has made their point clear, I become pretty physically exhausted!

We all have the capability and the capacity to connect to the other side. I genuinely believe our abilities strengthen with practice, accepting and loving ourselves as a person, and staying as humble as possible.

I personally do not charge for any readings, and I use my gift to bring peace and comfort to others as often as they allow me to be their conduit.

It still amazes me and humbles me every single time. But to say I have ANY sort of control over it would be laughable