dubois_love | Bidder pledges $10,000 for dinner with Alison Dubois (Reply)

Allison DuBois couldn't believe that someone had bid $10,000 at a Junior League of Phoenix Inc. silent auction to have dinner with her and her husband, Joe, at Marriott's Camelback Inn in Paradise Valley.

DuBois joked that for that amount of money she would have to bring her three daughters to the dinner as well. "That's a lot of pressure," she said with a laugh. "We'll see how that works out. They're pretty well-behaved."

The Phoenix psychic medium, author and lecturer was the keynote speaker at the Junior League of Phoenix's first Valley Impact fundraising luncheon Thursday at the Camelback Inn. DuBois praised the Junior League's 75 years of philanthropy, including its mission to promote and sponsor early child-intervention programs.

"By educating these kids, you're actually saving lives," she said. "And I don't know if you quite realize that you're doing that, but there will be somebody else who could have been a victim who won't be a victim because of what you are doing. I think that is a pretty big deal."

She said the Junior League members are surrogate moms to the children they are helping. DuBois said she always has had a soft spot for children. As a child, she watched a TV movie about the 1981 kidnapping and murder of 6-year-old Adam Walsh in Hollywood, Florida. "I asked my mom, I said, 'Why do people hurt kids?' That's kind of where it started for me," DuBois said. "I decided I was going to grow up to protect kids."

DuBois, who has used her abilities to solve cases for police departments and prosecutors, served on a task force that brought the Amber Alert system to Arizona. She also produced and starred in public service announcements to teach children how not to be an abduction victim.

DuBois said parents need to police their children more now than they did before. "Like my daughters know what Rohypnol is," DuBois said about the date-rape drug. "And that they never let somebody hand them a drink even if it's soda, but they get it themselves or, when they're older, see the bartender actually pour the drink.

"My oldest knows Israeli tactical street fighting. She can break a nose in five seconds." DuBois, 37, is the inspiration behind the TV series "Medium," starring Patricia Arquette. It airs at 8 p.m. Fridays on Channel 5 (KPHO).

The three-time New York Times best-selling author said she is working on her fourth book and has completed a TV pilot called "Soul Evidence" for the Syfy (formerly SCI FI) channel that could lead to a series. She assembled a team to crack police cold cases.

"We actually found a body in our first episode," she said. DuBois said the dead communicate with the living in various ways. For example, a departed husband might send his wife a rose on a special occasion via a living person. They might leave a penny in obscure places, dial phantom phone calls (nobody is there and often there is no number appearing on Caller ID) or make the room lights flicker. DuBois said the living should not go through life white-knuckled.

"What I mean by that is don't be so uptight, you know. Let loose," she said. "You don't worry about what everybody thinks about what you're going to do or say. Just be." DuBois has found the dead are easier to deal with than the living. "Because they don't have any hang-ups," she said.

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