It was three in the afternoon and the grey, overcast sky chilled the air, almost foreshadowing what I would feel in a few minutes’ time. Tapping my fingers anxiously on my oak table, I sat with overflowing anticipation for my interview with the psychic Betsy Balega.

There is a lot of hype about gypsies, psychics, spiritual detectives and other conduits to that realm we have no clue about. Many question whether their powers are for real, or if they are simply myths fuelled by ignorance.

The phone buzzed on the tabletop as I entered the realm of otherworldly phenomena.

Balega tells me she has been a “psychic” since about the age of four, when she had her first vision.

“I thought everybody was seeing the future, that everybody was experiencing this and it was a part of life,” she said.

At that, I injected my own unearthly experience into the conversation. When I was 10, I saw what appeared to be the ghost of my dead dog in my darkened bedroom. Balega told me that I will see my dog again. I’m not sure if I like thinking about this glorious reunion, but at least I have the comfort of my furry friend being there, welcoming my spirit into the ethereal afterworld.

Balega explains that as she got older, she learned that the people around here were not having “visions of the future,” as she calls it, and says that her visions only increased.

“As a teenager, I began to have more psychic experiences,” she said.

It was her fascination with the unseen world, and her ability to tap into it, that led to her tutelage under a medium named Mary Polis at the age of 24.

Balega was taught in all of the psychic routes, like healing and reading angels.

“We meditated every week for half an hour. After that we had a break, and then we would go healing one week, angel spirit guide another, and astral travel in another,” Balega said. “We did past lives, seeing your aura and finally the last class was a séance.”

Balega claims she has done readings for a number of famous or influential people, including the staff at The Amazing Race, Grey’s Anatomy and staff from the Prime Minister’s Office in 1992 — which is what got her solving crime with her supernatural, super-savvy prowess.

Somebody from the PMO visited Balega and told her how a woman from the PMO committed suicide.

Shortly thereafter, Balega had a vision of an ice cream truck and a woman that kept saying to her, “Get my husband’s car, you’ll find DNA evidence in the trunk.”

Balega’s vision of an ice cream truck was an eerie one since it was said to be the last place the woman was spotted.

Balega became convinced that this apparent suicide was not as it seemed. She tried convincing the police to re-open the case. Her plea was denied, but to this day, she believes the case was inaccurately concluded.

Balega also takes credit for helping solve the murder of a man named Mike James — a case she helped with after the man came to her in a vision.

“Psychics assist in solving crime but it’s the actual police that solve the crime,” Balega said.

Balega said it’s usually the families of victims who contact her, as happened with James, whose murder took place in Toronto last year.

The psychic, who lives in Toronto, says everyone has a “sixth sense” and that it’s only a matter of practicing to start seeing the results.

“I’ve practiced so long it’s like breathing,” Balega said.

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Graphic: Brianna Whitmore/The Sheaf