Medium is a fine class, people here are just going to say it sucks because it's not a Wizard. Lol.
A single level of Medium is fantastic for most martials... take the dip on an odd level, grab the Spirit Focus feat, and enchant your mithral breastplate with Spirit Bonded... now you have a static +3/+3 untyped bonus to attack and damage. And it stacks with Weapon Training/Gloves of Dueling, which is pretty awesome.
As for the particular archetype and the benefits if allowing a haunt to haunt you... I don't know... but I am sure it opens up some awesome story/roleplaying with a cool GM.
The Haunt Channeler ability is unlikely to see much use unless you actually encounter a haunt. This ability lets you temporarily capture and (through the rest of the party) interrogate a haunt, thereby possibly gathering the information needed to overcome it.
So this particular ability is close to useless -- but the rest of the class is quite useful -- especially for filling in a missing role in the party on a day's notice.
Too keep it spoiler-free, I'll only say this about haunts: A haunt is a spirit haunting a location (no surprise there, as that's basically what the name means), and behaves mostly like a trap. The first part of the Haunt Channeler ability is nice as it can help stop it before it activates, and prevent the "trap" from "resetting", but you wont ever use the second part of the ability. Haunts can be nasty, but abolishing control over your character is pretty much always worse.
Lastly - The VAST majority of posts I have read are of the opinion that the Medium is a pretty useless class...
Anyone who says that has very poor understanding of Pathfinder. I mean that! The underlying issue is that many people focus on the negative aspects while ignoring the positives. It's something that pops up form time to time - "unMonk loses good will save progression so it sucks", "Shifter is worsae than Druid so the class is unplayably bad", crap like that.
Sure, the guardian, marshall, and trickster spirits suck and you likely won't ever use them. And if you expect a class that completely changes on a day-to-day basis, you will be dissapointed, as 95% of the time you will channel the same spirit. But if you look at the class as a mostly martial character who if the situation demands it can turn into a 6/9 caster, it's actually pretty good.
People also often falsely believe that a Medium will often be unable to channel a desired spirit, but this FAQ dispels that.
Note that the Medium has full control of when he uses the Haunt Channeler ability, so he can always arrange to have the party restrain him first if appropriate.
Most important question is "What happens to the haunt after it is expelled?"
I presume it would go back to its previous location.
I promise you, I will be using the ability. Will let you know how it turns out..
Best case the haunt will use the Medium's body to put itself to rest, in which case it just vanishes. Worst case the haunt makes the Medium commit suicide.
Haunts have an alignment, and GMs are instructed to make them act accordingly. That said, most published haunts are evil. The GMG says haunts "react violently to the presence of the living" - that's not someone you want to give control over your body. Ever.
Note that the Medium has full control of when he uses the Haunt Channeler ability, so he can always arrange to have the party restrain him first if appropriate.
Er, no? You can only use it when you'd save against a haunt. Which only happens when you trigger one. If you notice the haunt without triggerign it, you wouldn't need it, and if you don't notice it beforehand, you've only got the surprise round do do something.
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Subconscious Usurpation is a medium's friend.
There are various ways they can loose control of their PC (spirit gets too many influence pts., haunt channeler, location channel, and the regular methods like enemy charming/dominating/possessing them)
This feat gives them a standard action each round and by this process, reduces the action economy of the possessing entity by same...