http://www.nypost.com/seven/01142008/tv/she_believes_104068.htm

By DON KAPLAN

Patricia Arquette

Well, says Patricia Arquette, who plays a woman who talks to dead people on the popular NBC drama "Medium," it doesn't hurt.

"Like everybody else, I don't know what happens to us when we die," she told The Post.

"Even from talking to different psychics about what happens to us in death, they all have different opinions and ideas," she says.

Truth is, Arquette says, she'd never really thought about it much until she got the part.

But from the other-worldly types she's met since "Medium" hit the air three years ago, she's beginning to believe.

"There's something there," she says. "Einstein said that energy can't be destroyed, and I know that we're energy, so I think there may be something to it.

"I don't know if these are hologram-like images of memories that people project and others pick up on. I don't know if a part of you moves on or a part of you stays, like a photograph of a scary event with information on it.

"I do think there's something there, and I think some people can communicate with it," she says.

On the show, Arquette plays Allison Dubois, a housewife and mother of three who helps the local DA solve or prevent gruesome crimes.

The character is based on a real woman of the same name, who now writes books about her experiences straddling the worlds of law enforcement and the paranormal.

"I talk to her sometimes," says Arquette of her character's namesake.

"I've also met a lot of people who come up to me and tell me that they're mediums and work with the police or the FBI," she says. "Some of them have thanked me for 'showing us as human beings and normal people,' " she says.

"I believe there are some people who have this ability," she says. "But I also believe that there are a lot of charlatans."

It didn't take a psychic to predict that the writers' strike was coming - which forced NBC to hold off putting "Medium" back on the air until last week.

That way, the network has original shows to air just when other shows were running out of new episodes.

"You can get mad, you can get frustrated, you can get disappointed with scheduling decisions, but they're really out of your hands," she says. "The problem with being a midseason replacement is that people already have established patterns of watching other shows," she says. "But this time, we're up against reruns, so it's kind of good for us."