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International Battle of the Psychics winner June Field

How a Dundee medium won a Ukrainian TV title

In December 2012 June won the 11th season of International Battle of the Psychics, a prime-time competition filmed in Kyiv for the Ukrainian channel STB and watched by 34 million people.

June Field during International Battle of the Psychics

Six months in Kyiv

The channel STB invited June to take part in the 11th season. At the time she had recently lost both her husband and her mum. Leaving her teenage son at home and travelling alone to Kyiv was one of the hardest things she has done.

She lived there for six months while the series was filmed. Once a week for three hours, over 12 weeks, it went out on Ukrainian prime-time TV. The Evening Telegraph covered the build-up to her move, and the Daily Record backed her as she represented Scotland.

Overcoming my fear of snakes during filming of International Battle of the Psychics... It took a long time.. And the snake was very friendly..

June's caption from her Kyiv photos
June Field smiling during filming of International Battle of the Psychics for STB
Filming for STB in Ukraine
70,000+
psychic mediums worldwide in the competition
5
times voted Psychic of the Week
54%
of the final vote went to June
6
months living in Kyiv for filming

The tests

Each week brought new tasks, some with police, grieving families or famous faces taking part.

Like the rest of the 70,000 contestants from around the world, I faced a series of challenges designed to test my abilities ranging from communicating with dolphins and finding hidden microphones to reading DNA, none of the tasks were what you might call ‘simple’.

June, on her blog

I was the only person in the history of the competition that never failed any tests.

June, talking to journalist Gayle Ritchie

Episode by episode

What June faced in each episode of the series, from her own notes.

June's own account of each episode follows its video.

  1. Ep. 1

    Blindfolded, June read for a celebrity she could not see, without knowing if it was a man or a woman. It was the French actress Michelle Mercier, who was in tears at the evidence.

    Watch episode 114 min
    Read June's account
  2. Ep. 2

    A reading of a Russian president's car, and of actresses from the TV show The Bachelor.

    Watch episode 225 min
    Read June's account
  3. Ep. 3

    A reading for the famous Russian ballerina Anastasia Volochkova, who did not like the truths June gave her.

    Watch episode 314 min
    Read June's account
  4. Ep. 4

    Without seeing or hearing a video, June described it from its vibration: an open-roofed place full of people shouting and cheering, a pull towards her legs and a South African Krugerrand. It was Oscar Pistorius running at the Olympic Stadium in the UK. A second task, about a murdered young woman, took June a while to recover from.

    Watch episode 418 min
    Read June's account
  5. Ep. 5

    June sensed that a woman riding a horse round an arena had problems with her legs, and that the horse was not her own, which turned out to be true. She also described a well-known celebrity very specifically from a painting the celebrity had made.

    Watch episode 516 min
    Read June's account
  6. Ep. 6

    Taken by the army to a remote area full of traps and trip wires, June was the only psychic to reach the hidden actress. She brought through the actress’s father and husband, and the actress asked her for a longer private reading afterwards.

    Watch episode 618 min
    Read June's account
  7. Ep. 7

    Reading flames set off by a voice, June described a famous Russian actress and predicted a baby girl for her daughter, who it turned out had just married.

    Watch episode 719 min
    Read June's account
  8. Ep. 8

    Sent round a house to find 10 hidden cameras, June found nine. She was the only psychic to find the owner, a Russian pop star, and read for her. Uri Geller commented on how specific she was.

    Watch episode 822 min
    Read June's account
  9. Ep. 9

    Given a photo of a young woman who had died, June said her hair was blonde when she passed, not brown as in the photo. Her relatives said that was correct. In a second task she described people sitting in large chairs facing away from her, and the order they sat in.

    Watch episode 919 min
    Read June's account
  10. Ep. 10

    One task was to connect with a child seen on a TV screen. June described her personality, her parents and what was in her room, then got to meet her.

    Watch episode 1021 min
    Read June's account
  11. Ep. 11

    Holding a murdered girl’s necklace, June described the killer for the Ukrainian police (the full story is below). In a second task she was the only psychic to meet and read for a famous Ukrainian soap star.

    Watch episode 1123 min
    Read June's account
  12. Ep. 12

    June was the only psychic to identify every DNA slide correctly. In the last task for the four finalists, each was locked in a cell and had to sense which world tragedy a hidden object came from. The date of the tragedy was the code for the next door. June’s was 9/11.

    Watch episode 1256 min
    Read June's account
  13. Ep. 13

    The story of June’s life and how she came to mediumship, then the final, where she won with 54% of the overall votes. She was the first English speaker to win.

    Watch episode 1327 min
    Read June's account

The murder case

In episode 11 the psychics held objects belonging to a murdered girl, with Ukrainian police there in the hope of new information. Holding her necklace, with her father sitting opposite, June first told him the girl was not related to him by blood. He said she had been adopted.

June then described the killer: a tattoo on his right shoulder, a scar, the colour of his car, some of the numbers on his number plate, and a smell of oil from working with machinery. She drew the area where he worked. The police interviewed her afterwards, off camera.

The episode aired the year before he was caught. After June had won and come home, he killed again, and he was caught in the August of the next year. He had tried to have the tattoo removed and had sold the car. He confessed, and according to June he told police her description was 99.9% correct. The story reached the front page of The Sunday Post.

What the judge said

The winner's trophy from International Battle of the Psychics, with a bent and signed spoon
The Trophy presented to the winner of International Battle of the Psychics.. note the Uri Geller spoon bent and signed.. there for safekeeping!

When I was judging The Battle Of The Psychics, June Field really impressed me with the level of her intuitive talents and skills. She is also a real nice person.

Uri Geller, judge

The final

June Field with her hands to her face as the winner is announced on Ukrainian television
The winning moment when the winner was announced after taking 54% of the overall votes.

The last episode told the story of June’s life and how she came to mediumship, then showed the final. She won with 54% of the overall votes, beating over 70,000 psychic mediums worldwide to the title World’s Greatest Psychic. She was the first English speaker to win.

The Scotsman, the Dundee Courier, The Sunday Post and Psychic News all covered her win.

  • The winning moment
    International Battle of the Psychics
  • Interview after her win
    STV News

The prize that was never paid

Every contestant’s invitation said the winner would receive 250,000 hryvnia, about £19,000, as an earlier season’s winner had. None of them were told otherwise until the final. When June won, STB told her there was no cash prize.

A clause in the contract she had signed gave the channel the right to decide whether to pay, and under Ukrainian law it chose not to. June told the story to The Scotsman and The Sun.

June in the press