- La Toya Buultjens began experiencing interactions with spirits as a child
- She began dreaming about winning money on a game show in 2024
- One day, along with her mortician husband, she hopes to open a funeral home
Here La Toya tells her story in her own words.
‘Congratulations La Toya! You’re a winner,’ cried the TV host, as he held open a gold suitcase full of money.
As confetti showered me from above, I couldn’t believe my luck.
Suddenly, my alarm blared loudly, pulling me from my sleep.
Beep beep beep.
Rolling over in bed next to my husband Liam, then 41, I hit snooze on my alarm.
It was February 2024 and, while most people would brush off the dream, I knew better.
As a psychic medium, I knew what I’d experienced in my sleep wasn’t just an over-active imagination.
It was a prediction.
Since applying to be a contestant on the TV game show Deal or No Deal, I’d been having a recurring dream of winning.
In it, I’d select Case 17 and inside was $75,000.
‘Same dream again?’ Liam asked, as I rubbed my eyes.
Liam, who worked as a mortician, and I met when we were both working at a bar in our early 20s.
We fell in love quickly, bonding over our love of ghost hunting, and went on to have two kids – Louis, now three, and one-year-old Joey. Liam loves my daughter Georgie, eight, from a previous relationship, like his own.
Our quirky careers are often met with raised eyebrows, but we joke that Liam deals with deceased people who are quiet, while the departed I encounter are much more talkative!
Like in most jobs, sometimes Liam accidentally brings his work home with him – in the form of lingering souls.
The most recent tag-along was in 2022 – a nun who I spotted walking around our home in Leopold, Vic.
When I reached out to ask if she was lost, she told me she fancied Liam, and I politely asked her to move on.
Luckily, she didn’t hang around.
I wasn’t always so in tune with my spiritual side though. As a young girl I dismissed my visions, putting them down to my imagination.
And when I woke up in the middle of the night to find my bed shaking, my mother Janet suggested it could just be the washing machine rattling the house. But I suspected it was something else.
It wasn’t until I was on a ghost tour at Geelong Gaol in 2014 that I realised I was experiencing interactions with spirits.
I was experiencing interactions with spirits.
‘Why is that lady dressed up for the tour?’ I asked the guide Leanne, describing the woman’s ruffled dress.
‘She’s a spirit in the spirit afterlife,’ Leanne replied, explaining she was a psychic medium.
‘If you can see her, you have the gift too,’ she added.
I was shocked.
How many dead people have I been talking to for all these years, and not known that they were a spirit? I wondered.
After that I started to lean into my experiences, instead of shying away.
I practised ‘tuning in’ to my spirit world, which is similar to being in a meditative state.
For me, some experiences are really visual, some are audio and for some it may just be like a story playing in the mind’s eye.
I was always open with Liam and the kids about my abilities, and they’re supportive of my work.
When the Deal or No Deal filming day finally arrived, I felt completely calm as Liam and I took our seats in the studio.
Hearing my name called, I made my way down to meet the host.
As the stage lights beamed down, I wasn’t nervous – I knew what case to choose.
‘Case 17 please,’ I said. ‘It came to me in a dream.’
As we made our way through the briefcases, however, my ‘human’ intuition started to creep in.
What if you’re wrong? I fretted, nerves tingling.
Finally, we were down to just three cases – mine, Liam’s and one other.
The only prizes left were $75,000, $5000, or $1000.
So when I was offered a deal of $13,900 by the bank, I took it.
Elated to have won some money for the kids, the air felt thick with tension as I played on to finally reveal what was in my case.
You could hear a pin drop in the audience as we all watched the briefcase fall open.
$75,000, it read.
My dream prediction had been right!
For a second, my heart dropped. But my disappointment vanished as soon as it arrived.
I’d still secured almost $14,000 for my family.
I was over the moon.
Pulling me in for a celebratory hug, Liam whispered in my ear, ‘I’m so proud of you.’
Eight months on, in October 2024, the episode finally aired on TV.
Curled up with the kids on the couch, they jumped around the living room as my winnings were announced.
We’d kept it a secret since the day of filming.
‘You’re so cool, Mum!’ Georgie cheered.
We have plans to spend some of the money on a family holiday to Sri Lanka, and the rest I’ll invest in ghost hunting equipment to explore haunted places around the world.
It’s always been my dream to explore Edinburgh’s spiritual past, so now I can make that come true.
And while I know there are always sceptics out there, I believe everyone is born with psychic abilities, and it’s whether you’re aware enough to tune into them before life pushes them away.
Georgie is already showing signs of psychic abilities, and Liam, 42, and I dream of one day owning a funeral home to help more people pass over to the afterlife peacefully.
But for now, surrounded by my beautiful family, I’m happier than ever in this wonderful life.
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