Allison DuBois - Don't Kiss Them Good-bye

One of the first undeniable times she revealed a glimpse of her full abilities was when I took her on a trip to San Francisco to ask for her hand in marriage. While on the trip we stopped at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum.

While there, we played a game in which each of two people tries to guess what the other is thinking. The physical setup consists of a panel that keeps the two people from seeing each other. On either side of the panel there are identical sets of buttons, each corresponding to a shape, such as a circle, star, or square. One person chooses a button and presses it. Then the other person tries to press the matching button without being able to see the opponent. There is a set of lights to indicate if the guess was correct and an awful noise to indicate if it was not.

Five times in a row, Allison correctly chose the buttons I had pushed. I was confused. There was only a 1 in 3,125 chance of that happening. I thought the machine was broken, so I checked. It was not broken. I made her repeat the buttons in the order in which she pressed them. She was right on. I should have fallen to my knees and proposed right then!

She still did not reveal to me her psychic ability. It was not enough that she always knew people’s motives or that she could always guess the endings to stories. I knew that she was an excellent driver, as if she was always able to see the hole in traffic before it opened up. These things alone were too subtle to notice, and besides, I was in love, so everything she did seemed special.

Shortly before I became fully aware of her ability, an odd thing happened. One afternoon when we were next in line at an automatic car wash, she looked at the car in front of us and started laughing.

“Wouldn’t it be funny if the car in front of us was covered in suds and the machine broke and didn’t rinse it off?”

Strangely, that was just what happened. The guy in front of us waited a minute, then got out of his car and looked around with the funniest expression on his face. He then drove off, I presume to complain to the management.

At the time, I was not sure whether Allison saw the future or was actually able to make things happen. But the extent of her gift would soon be revealed, and many of my questions would be answered, only to raise more questions.

One day, Allison’s senses were turned up higher than usual. She could see all sorts of spirits around the house, and was a little uneasy about it. I asked her what was bothering her.

“Like you don’t know,” she snapped. Well, of course I didn’t know. I could not see them. I asked her repeatedly, and finally she told me what she was seeing. After she realized that, even though I could not see them, I would not condemn her for her ability, messages came flooding out from my relatives who had passed.

My father was one of the first to come though. He had passed away two and a half months before I met Allison. I missed him and for a long time I wished that he and Allison could have met. She told me about the drawing table where I would build model airplanes as a boy while my father watched over my shoulder. She detailed the models I made and hung over my bed, and she described my childhood room. She knew things that she could not have known about except psychically. It turned out to be a wonderful way to introduce me to her abilities. I think that she was also relieved to be able to open up to me completely.

Daily life with Allison is not as difficult as you might expect. But it is different. Some people like the expression “It is easier to beg forgiveness than ask permission.” Well, this approach does not work with Allison. She feels betrayed, because she knows right away that you lied to her. I learned early in our marriage to be up front about everything. The small disagreements are quickly forgotten when addressed before the fact.

Allison has what she calls vivid recall. She can remember everything. Many husbands claim that their wives have this ability, and maybe it is true. But Allison remembers the clothes, the people, the food, the gifts, and the atmosphere of every birthday, holiday, and anniversary that we have had over the last decade.

I never have to worry about losing her in the mall or at an amusement park. She always seems to know right where I am. Sometimes I forget when I am out with other people that they will not be able to find me so easily.

I feel that any two people who are truly in love are also in tune with each other; we give new meaning to the saying “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Most married couples feel a strong connection. Imagine that feeling turned up with a 20 dB gain (engineer talk for 100 times more powerful).

Allison often uses this unseen connection to improve our lives. She often calls on the telephone when I think of her. Other times she will remind me to take an extra dollar on a short trip to the store. I will not understand why until I get to the store and the bank machine is out of order. Now I have gotten used to these things.

We have spent many nights together with her relaying messages to me from the dead. Mostly these messages are from relatives, but some are from famous people. The spirits usually come through with something to verify their authenticity. For instance, my grandfather said he specifically missed Boston clam chowder. We called my mother, who confirmed that Boston clam chowder was one of his absolute favorites.

Another time, I inquired about Albert Einstein and she came through with the cross streets of the university he attended in Germany. I’ve also received messages pertaining to future events in my life, some of which I am waiting to confirm.

Throughout much of this book there are examples of the fantastic things that Allison does. This is only one part of her. She is also a wife, a mother, and a friend. Like almost everyone, Allison is tired after a hard day’s work. She likes to unwind by watching mindless television, like game shows and sitcoms. But sometimes she turns on a forensic science show in which they are extracting a bug’s larva from the nose of a decomposed corpse to build a case against the perpetrator. I ask her if this is really relaxing, but she does not answer because she is so entranced.

I am scientific at heart and I want an explanation for her ability. I have been studying her habits and conducting small tests of my own. I hope that one day I will be able to offer an explanation of how she does it. However, I don’t think that the question “Why her?” will be fully answered in this lifetime.

I was watching Dateline in the winter of 2001 when I saw a story on Dr. Gary Schwartz and John Edward. John Edward’s psychic ability was being put to the test and Dr. Schwartz was talking about his research on the survival of human energy after death. My guides told me that I was to be a part of Dr. Schwartz’s research and that I had to contact him. My guides never steer me wrong, but I knew nothing about being a research medium. I liked the idea of science being fused with the other side, but could I be effective there?

Dr. Schwartz is the director of the Human Energy Systems Laboratory at the University of Arizona in Tucson. He is known worldwide for his academic research on life after death. It took about a month to get in to meet with this busy man. If you’re a psychic looking for confirmation from Gary that you’re significant, forget it. Gary looks at you to study you, not to praise you. I like that about him. He’s a scientist, not a groupie. I now sarcastically refer to myself as Gary’s lab rat.

I grew increasingly excited about the meeting. I was going to get some third-party, objective validation from science. I wasn’t looking for a pat on the back, just a test to gauge my ability. I was willing to be wrong or even to fail a test. I just had to know, for myself, whether I could measure up to my own expectations. I wanted feedback from an academic familiar with the spiritual field.