A roar of laughter erupts from a crowd inside a large conference room at the De Vere Cranage Estate hotel. The joke? The idea that visiting the doctor could help treat a serious illness.<\/p>\n
On stage the controversial Australian proponent of natural remedies Barbara O\u2019Neill is taking part in a question-and-answer session during a five-day wellness conference, where science mixes uncomfortably with Bible verse and potentially deadly pseudo-scientific practices.<\/p>\n
She is advising people attending at the event in Cheshire<\/a> on a variety of medical ailments, and dismisses the use of antibiotics, vaccines or scientifically proven cancer treatment.<\/p>\n Tickets for the residential retreat can cost up to \u00a31,300. An undercover reporter for the Guardian attended for one day, observing four sessions covering topics including the immune system and one titled Barbara Under Attack.<\/p>\n The audience\u2019s rapturous laughter is prompted by a woman asking O\u2019Neill if there is anything that could help her lupus, which she says has not responded well to the doctor\u2019s treatments. \u201cYes, keep away from the doctor,\u201d quips O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill tells the audience that she is \u201cjust a little lady\u201d, but she is an incredibly influential one, with 3.6 million Instagram followers and 1.7 million on Facebook. Many of her videos rack up millions of views.<\/p>\n Barbara O’Neill. Photograph: Facebook<\/p>\n Having initially found success promoting alternative treatments in Australia, in 2019 O\u2019Neill was banned from providing any health services in her home country<\/a>, where authorities found she was responsible for \u201cmisleading vulnerable people\u201d. They said she \u201cmade dangerous claims not supported by evidence and posed a risk to public safety\u201d.<\/p>\n She has since taken her unregulated services overseas, most recently with a string of appearances in the UK and Ireland which prompted concern<\/a> from experts in both countries. A number of prominent doctors and scientists have told the Guardian her advice is \u201cdangerous\u201d, with some warning it could kill.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill appears regal sitting on stage in an armchair offering audience members softly spoken advice on endometriosis, varicose veins and constipation.<\/p>\n The 73-year-old is dressed in a long skirt with a woollen wrap, which she later switches for a soft cardigan, creating a look that sits somewhere between Queen Elizabeth II at Balmoral and Claudia Winkleman in The Traitors. The Highlands-inspired attire is a nod to her Scottish heritage, which the Australian mentions on multiple occasions.<\/p>\n She carries an air of authority to her devoted followers, many of whom seem confident that her doctrine could improve their health.<\/p>\n Much of her core teaching aligns with established scientific health advice: few doctors would dispute that a balanced diet, regular exercise, hydration and plenty of sleep are important factors for good health, while it is advisable to avoid alcohol, caffeine and smoking.<\/p>\n During some of the lectures, O\u2019Neill draws diagrams on a whiteboard while issuing long scientific-sounding explanations.<\/p>\n She talks about the glycocalyx lining of the endothelium cells, which provides anticoagulant effects and releases nitric oxide, a vasodilator.<\/p>\n But she also makes some highly unscientific and potentially deadly recommendations.<\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s amazing how many tests are creating illnesses,\u2019 O\u2019Neill said at the Cheshire event. Photograph: Robyn Vinter\/The Guardian<\/p>\n During the Q&A session, a woman says that while she recently underwent tests, doctors found a stomach tumour, which she says two specialists have advised her to have surgically removed.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes scans are not right,\u201d replies O\u2019Neill, who advises the woman to treat the tumour with a castor oil compress \u2013 kitchen roll soaked with high viscosity oil from the castor plant \u2013 on the outside of the body.<\/p>\n That day O\u2019Neill recommends the same remedy for nasal polyps, endometriosis, carpal tunnel syndrome and bile duct stones. Medical experts told the Guardian there was no evidence castor oil compresses did anything to improve any of those conditions.<\/p>\n She suggests using castor oil with a pinch of cayenne pepper in the eye to an audience member with glaucoma and high blood pressure.<\/p>\n Prof Gus Gazzard, a leading glaucoma expert, says: \u201cThere is absolutely no evidence to support these claims, and unfortunately, there\u2019s the possibility that they might indeed cause harm.\u201d<\/p>\n The questions continue, read out by her husband, Michael, who gives some of his own lectures during the retreat. The pair stumble over long names of medical conditions, while the audience laughs along.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill advises a pregnant woman against taking folic acid, which randomised controlled trials have shown can protect against neural tube deficits in babies. To someone else, she claims antibiotics are \u201cthe worst thing to give\u201d for infections.<\/p>\n Jewellery at O\u2019Neill\u2019s conference in Cheshire. Photograph: Robyn Vinter\/The Guardian<\/p>\n To a woman who says she does not have a functioning thyroid, she recommends slowly stopping her dose of thyroxine, which is prescribed for thyroid dysfunction, to \u201csee what the body does\u201d.<\/p>\n Medical experts say this would lead to fatigue, hair loss, weight gain, a slow heart rate and low mood. Martin Whyte, a professor of metabolic medicine at the University of Surrey, says: \u201cSomeone without a functioning thyroid cannot make thyroid hormone, so stopping thyroxine to \u2018see what the body does\u2019 really makes no sense and risks serious, potentially life-threatening illness.\u201d<\/p>\n A woman who says she has diabetes tells O\u2019Neill she is hoping to come off metformin, a drug used to lower blood sugar levels. Metformin is typically used to treat type 2 diabetes, which can respond to a change in diet, while type 1 requires daily insulin injections. Both types require blood glucose monitoring. O\u2019Neill advises her to stop testing her blood sugar because it would \u201cbalance right out with the change in diet\u201d.<\/p>\n This advice is \u201cvery dangerous\u201d, according to Gill Livingston, a professor of psychiatry of older people at UCL. \u201cUntreated diabetes means the body is bathed in bloodstream high sugar and increases the risk of multiple physical illnesses, such as loss of eyesight, loss of peripheral sensation, dementia and sometimes death.\u201d<\/p>\n Refusing medical tests is a regular theme in O\u2019Neill\u2019s teachings across her publications, her social media and her public appearances. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing how many tests are creating illnesses,\u201d she says at the Cheshire event.<\/p>\n At another point, not long after encouraging a follower to ignore her oncologist\u2019s recommendation to take a drug, and without any clarification about the type of cancer the woman was being treated for, she says: \u201cThey give you a label and then they give you a drug.\u201d<\/p>\n Interspersed throughout the day are claims that people have recovered from illnesses after taking her advice. She cites a man who had suffered a stroke, and had \u201cno adverse effects at all\u201d when he stopped taking medication prescribed by his doctor, including statins and blood thinners, on one of her retreats.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s outrageous what medicine will do. We have to start saying \u2018no, thank you\u2019,\u201d she says. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter what they say to you, what fear they put into you, say no.<\/p>\n \u201cThe body, it\u2019s got an inbuilt ability to heal itself.\u201d<\/p>\n Prof Liam Smeeth, director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, calls her claims \u201cextraordinary\u201d. He says: \u201cMost disturbingly, many of these \u2013 if followed \u2013 will cause substantial harm, and this could include death.\u201d<\/p>\n A product that claims to protect against EMF. Photograph: Robyn Vinter\/The Guardian<\/p>\n It is clear some of her followers have a lot of trust in her. Speaking to the Guardian\u2019s undercover reporter at the end of the day, one audience member says O\u2019Neill\u2019s answer to her question was \u201cvery helpful\u201d and she now has the confidence to go against specialists\u2019 advice for surgery for a health condition.<\/p>\n In other conversations during breaks, some people attending say they have lost trust in western medicine after side-effects or failed treatments.<\/p>\n One woman in her 60s explains that she and her family refused masks and vaccines during the Covid crisis, had gatherings and \u201cactually washed my hands less than normal\u201d. She says her husband went into hospital in early 2020 with pneumonia and died two days later. She blames the medics for his death.<\/p>\n \u201cYou know they\u2019re satanists, don\u2019t you?\u201d she says, of the government and those who run major global institutions. \u201cThe elite are all flesh-eating paedophiles.\u201d<\/p>\n Some at the conference wear amulets they claim protect against 5G signals and a stall selling them proves popular. There is no evidence that 5G signals cause harm and yet O\u2019Neill advises those working at a computer to invest in a device to protect against damage she says is caused by electronic devices and \u201cbalance the body after exposure to an electromagnetic field [EMF]\u201d.<\/p>\n Dr David Robert Grimes, an expert in biostatistics at Trinity College Dublin, says fear of modernity is a common pseudoscience trope.<\/p>\n \u201cThe canard that EMFs are \u2018damaging\u2019 us is a tired one that exploits our ignorance of technical terms to instil fear,\u201d he says. \u201cThere is no device that \u2018balances\u2019 you after exposure, because the central conceit is nonsense. We live in a world with light, heat, radio waves, and the sun, so EMFs are all around us. The idea of balancing is really meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n He adds: \u201cThe evidence is clear that patients seduced by the false allure of complementary medicine fare objectively worse than those that stick to conventional treatments. These patients are typically convinced by dubious healers to delay or reject life-saving treatments until it\u2019s too late, with often tragic consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n Before O\u2019Neill\u2019s most recent tour, senior doctors and medical experts, including Grimes, wrote to some of the venues hosting her conferences urging them to reconsider holding events that would \u201cspread dangerous health fictions to a susceptible audience\u201d.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill\u2019s husband, Michael, co-runs her company and is the engine behind her tours. In an afternoon session titled Barbara Under Attack, he describes her \u201cpersecution\u201d by authorities, the scientific community and the media . \u201cThere is a war against us,\u201d he tells the audience.<\/p>\n After an approach from the Guardian to O\u2019Neill for comment on her claims at the conference, a video of the couple appears on her Instagram and Facebook pages warning their followers of \u201cdisgusting\u201d reporting. Michael reads out the statement issued to the Guardian<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe complaints against Barbara are purely speculative, based on an ideology that the only legitimate way to health is through the medical profession,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Michael claims the couple have not received complaints about O\u2019Neill\u2019s work and highlights statistics about medical mistakes in the NHS.<\/p>\n He adds: \u201cThe campaign against Barbara by the media, and academics is a modern-day witch-hunt that has no substance in facts, but purely an ideology that supports the most corrupt organisation in the world; the pharmaceutical industry.\u201d<\/p>\n The pair have vowed to continue holding events. O\u2019Neill says she is driven by God, who she believes spoke directly to her.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would be wrong of me to stop.\u201d<\/p>\n