As the new year begins and we look to the future, Gayle Ritchie questions whether psychic mediums can help us find the answers we’re looking for.
Sitting in June Field’s special ‘spirit room’, I’m aware of a curious vibrating sensation.
I’m not sure what this is, but June says it’s to do with ‘energy’ in the atmosphere.
“Gary Numan, Jane McDonald, John Thomson and Claire Sweeney have sat exactly where you’re sitting,” she tells me.
“There’s just something about this room. I spend a lot of time in here.”
Having been invited to interview June in her home on the outskirts of Dundee, I’m treated to coffee and biscuits in her gorgeous living room.
The view is to die for – of horses serenely grazing a grassy hill.
Meanwhile, her Siamese cat, Radi, deigns to give me a sniff before he settles on top of the leather sofa from where he continues to watch the proceedings with a beady eye.
As far as psychic mediums and spiritual healers go, June is a major name.
Revered by celebrities galore, and counting Linda Lusardi, Judy Murray and Toyah Willcox among her friends, June gained the title of ‘World’s Greatest Psychic’ after winning the 2012 International Battle of the Psychics in Ukraine.
More than 70,000 took part in the televised competition, which was watched by an audience of 34 million.
The judging panel included the great spoon-bender Uri Geller who said of June: “I have never seen a psychic so specific”. Praise indeed!
Tasks put to contestants involved analysing photos of people and deducing whether they were dead or alive, and describing physical issues, or markings, they might have.
“Pictures are my thing,” says June. “I was the only person in the history of the competition that never failed any tests.”
Born this way
June, whose great-aunt was a transfiguration medium – specialising in taking on the facial features of the dead -believes she was “born” to do what she does.
“I’ve always been like this,” she reflects.
“From the age of eight I was aware of faces being around me at night. I saw people.
“They didn’t smile – they just looked at me. I was in the top bunk bed above my sister, and realised it was a bit strange; how could people be looking down from that height?
“It frightened me sometimes because I didn’t know who they were. But then I thought they might be looking out for me.”
This, to me, sounds rather a nightmare scenario – the idea of discombobulated faces floating around makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up!
“I can switch off – it’s more a case of tuning in, like tuning into a channel, or choosing to open a door,” June explains.
“I can let spirits communicate. I can see, hear and feel them. I like to describe personalities and characters and I like to speak; I don’t want people to tell me anything first.
“And I wouldn’t stop someone in Tesco and say, ‘Your dead father is standing behind you.”
What June hopes to offer people is evidence. And while readings can be extremely emotional, they can also be light-hearted.
It’s rare June, who is also a karate expert, is unable to ‘make a connection’ with someone, but this happened once, at an event in Fraserburgh.
“A girl had come for a reading and I tried to get into her energy but if buffeted back,” she recalls.
“I told her I couldn’t make a connection and gave her a refund. A year later, I heard she had died.”
June, however, has a strong sense of responsibility: she won’t tune into negative energy or reveal bad tidings, believing this unethical.
On a more uplifting note, June was able to tell singer Jane McDonald she’d be returning to work for Channel 5 – when she had no plan to do so. And of course, that’s what happened.
Dundee psychic medium with celebrity pals
She’s pals with Hugh Grant, and was invited to his birthday party earlier this month.
“I’ve read for many celebrities, politicians and members of the royal family,” June says.
“It’s a privilege, but people are just people, at the end of the day.”
She also works as a spiritual healer, and in 2020 sent healing energy to Linda Lusardi, who was severely unwell with Covid-19.
According to her husband, June pulled Linda “back from the brink”. She also helped “turn around” Kate Garraway’s husband, Derek.
In Ukraine, she helped solve a murder, working with police, describing the killer’s tattoo, scar and car.
Nine months later he was caught, and a story featured in the Sunday Post, headlined: “Our psychic snares serial killer”.
I’ve read for many celebrities, politicians and members of the royal family. It’s a privilege, but people are just people, at the end of the day.”
Of course June, who was widowed in 2012, is no stranger to those who think what she does is a load of mumbo jumbo… and she takes great satisfaction in changing their minds.
One man, who’d been “dragged along” to a demo in Fife, was full of cynicism as she approached.
“I told him he’d broken his pinkie and that there was a lady in the room telling me he’d lost half his nipple to cancer.
“I was able to reassure him he wouldn’t lose the other half. The look on his face! It certainly made him think.”
With hundreds of people at demos, how does June choose who to tune into?
“I go for the loudest (spirit) voice. And I pride myself on being specific. But like I say, it can be light-hearted AND evidential.
“I was able to tell someone I had a man with a flowery shirt feeding a parrot off a teaspoon. That got a laugh, but it also meant something.”
She believes we are spirit people housed in physical bodies, and, as a medium, she heightens her vibrations while spirits lower theirs – and they meet in the middle. Hence the name ‘medium’.
June admits clairvoyancy isn’t everybody’s cup of tea, adding: “I’d never force this on everyone. But people don’t often come to me until they’ve lost someone and they’re grieving. They’re looking for answers.”
Her events raise money for charity and private readings take place face-to-face or via Zoom.
“I can get into somebody through photos or online,” she smiles.
“This is just the way I was born. We all have the aptitude to tune into channels but perhaps I’m more sensitive.”
- June’s events are usually sell-outs but check out her website, junefieldmedium.com, for ones coming up.
Conversation