\u201cThe Commission is satisfied that Mrs O\u2019Neill poses a risk to the health or safety of members of the public.\u201d<\/p>\n
Since her ban, O\u2019Neill has travelled the world, giving lectures that could see her imprisoned or fined<\/a>\u00a0for breaking the prohibition order\u00a0in New South Wales.<\/p>\n Ahead of this\u00a0latest series of lectures (which are not her first in Ireland), health and science experts had published an open letter<\/a> to the venues hosting her.<\/p>\n \u201cO\u2019Neill consistently urges patients to abandon effective therapies like chemotherapy, scaremongering patients about medical treatment and engendering mistrust in healthcare teams,\u201d the letter, signed by more than a dozen doctors, reads.<\/p>\n On Thursday, The Journal attended one of her seminars in person to see if their concerns transpired.\n<\/p>\n \u2018Journey of Healing\u2019<\/p>\n The event was the last day of O\u2019Neill\u2019s \u201cJourney of Healing\u201d seminar. Held at a hotel located on the border between Meath and Dublin, it was billed as \u201can unforgettable three-day health and wellness experience with renowned health educator Barbara O\u2019Neill\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cDiscover practical, life-changing principles for healing naturally and learning how simple lifestyle choices can transform your health\u2014body, mind, and soul,\u201d a post on O\u2019Neill\u2019s Facebook page read.\u00a0<\/p>\n Previous days had included modules on sexual health and the \u201ctrue cause of disease\u201d, but O\u2019Neill waited until the final day of the course to broach the topic that has brought her notoriety: cancer.<\/p>\n On arrival, attendees coming into the venue could see a devil, complete with red horns and flames, displayed on a billboard advertising a separate comedy gig at the same hotel later that month.<\/p>\n Different biblical imagery continued inside.<\/p>\n The event was hosted by a religious group promoting what they called \u201cBible based health principles\u201d, and a stack of bibles was left on a desk near the entrance for attendees to take.<\/p>\n Inside the hall, O\u2019Neill stepped onstage in a midnight blue dress and black stockings. Her thick grey hair was held in a loose ponytail, revealing the beaming face of a kindly grandmother.<\/p>\n She spoke in a gentle, lulling Australian accent. Soon, a list of organs was scrawled on the whiteboard onstage beside her: tongue; liver; lungs; skin; kidneys; colon.<\/p>\n As she wrote, O\u2019Neill recommended salves, herbs and poultices for various conditions and effects.<\/p>\n The audience, about 400 strong, were mostly well-dressed women, aged between 20 and 60. There was a smattering of men.<\/p>\n Detox<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill\u2019s first talk, nominally on the liver, was about detoxifying the body.<\/p>\n Public health doctors often question the idea of \u201cdetoxes<\/a>\u201d, which are promoted by gimmicky supplements with unproven health effects.<\/p>\n They argue that the body detoxes itself, largely through the liver.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThe whole idea of a detox diet is a super fad,\u201d dietician Sarah Noone wrote for the Irish Heart Foundation<\/a>. \u201cThere is no evidence that toxins even build up in our bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n Nevertheless, large parts of O\u2019Neill\u2019s talk consisted of mainstream medical truisms and could easily have been lifted from a lecture to first-year medical students.<\/p>\n Chains of chemical pathways were scribbled next to the list of organs on the whiteboard.<\/p>\n Some of O\u2019Neill\u2019s prescriptions could have been taken from a generic HSE page: sleep; exercise; eat more fibre and less sugar; stay hydrated.<\/p>\n At one point, she echoed the critics of alternative medicine, saying the liver will detox the body in the right circumstances.<\/p>\n Though, according to O\u2019Neill, the right circumstances for the liver to detox the body are when a person obeys a strict diet of juice and protein shakes, along with a regimen of saunas.<\/p>\n She advised that if your tongue tastes bad or if you cough up each morning, they are good signs. It means that the detox is working.<\/p>\n Other snippets were more concerning.<\/p>\n \u201cI was very happy whenever my babies got fevers,\u201d she told the crowd.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill claimed this was because, unlike the\u00a0overwhelming consensus<\/a> in modern medicine, she believed that most common infectious diseases are caused by toxins, not microbes, which she said appear in sick people because they are there to help clear out the body.<\/p>\n She says a person without toxins can\u2019t catch a cold.<\/p>\n This view of disease is probably why there was only one mention of vaccines in Thursday\u2019s talks: she outlined how audience members who received vaccines can detox themselves from them.<\/p>\n One\u00a0does not<\/a> need to detox from vaccines. The germ theory of disease has been established for centuries<\/a>.<\/p>\n Fever was also presented by\u00a0O\u2019Neill as just another way a person could detox.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen all the rubbish is burnt up, the fire goes out,\u201d she told the audience.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill also said that extra benefits occur when a person\u2019s body temperature hits between 43 and 45 degrees Celsius, though she also admitted she never bothered to check her own children\u2019s temperatures.<\/p>\n A fever of 45 degrees is considered a severe medical emergency in anyone, particularly children, even when there are no other symptoms.\u00a0The HSE recommends<\/a> contacting a doctor at 40 degrees.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill made no mention of the risks when a person\u2019s body temperature gets that high, which include brain damage or death.<\/p>\n \u201cFever is your friend,\u201d she told the crowd.<\/p>\n Some in attendance had children with them. Others were visibly pregnant.<\/p>\n Merchandise<\/p>\n Outside the conference hall, a corridor featured ads for a \u201cparasite and gut cleanse\u201d, among other detoxes on sale.<\/p>\n At the end of the hall, juice was sold for \u20ac8 a bottle with about a hundred impressive, if sufficiently vague, health claims, e.g. \u201cMay lower cholesterol\u201d.<\/p>\n When The Journal bought a \u20ac70 ticket for a one-day pass to O\u2019Neill\u2019s lecture, a popup appeared onscreen offering to add some \u201cwild yam cream\u201d to the order, at a cost of an additional \u20ac60.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill generally recommends listeners to rub this on their skin to balance hormones, or to treat depression and thyroid problems, but, in a later lecture, O\u2019Neill cited this cream as part of a cancer treatment.\u00a0<\/p>\n Aside from the aforementioned bibles, which were given out freely, O\u2019Neill\u2019s own modestly sized book was also on sale for \u20ac50.<\/p>\n \u201cSterling,\u201d the seller said, as a woman tapped her card to pay.<\/p>\n At just \u20ac15, a 50-page booklet in startling red was a comparative steal; it was called The Assassination of Barbara O\u2019Neill.<\/p>\n Its blurb asked: \u201cHow could a 66-year-old grandmother, who gave her life to helping people with their health, become the subject of a malicious smear campaign which resulted in her being classified as a serious threat to public health in Australia?\u201d<\/p>\n After a break, the audience went back to hear O\u2019Neill\u2019s views on cancer.<\/p>\n Cancer<\/p>\n During her talks, O\u2019Neill did not shy away from the controversy surrounding her.<\/p>\n She referenced her ban by Australian health authorities, though her version of the story claimed they were part of a corrupt medical establishment.<\/p>\n As part of a story about being arrested in Qatar, she ironically described herself as \u201ca threat to public safety\u201d to laughs in the audience.<\/p>\n She said that journalists often focus on her claim that cancer is a fungus, which she says is only true sometimes.<\/p>\n At another time, she proclaims \u201ccancer is a yeast\u201d.<\/p>\n Cancer is definitively not a yeast<\/a>; it is a disease caused by the uncontrolled growth of a person\u2019s own cells.<\/p>\n If there was a central message to the talk, it was that O\u2019Neill hates chemotherapy (and, to a lesser extent, mammograms).<\/p>\n Much of what she said might have been familiar to patients: chemotherapy works by killing cells and is often extremely unpleasant, making the patient feel far sicker during the course.<\/p>\n Unexpectedly, she conceded chemotherapy\u2019s main benefit: it saves lives. She did not dwell on that aspect.<\/p>\n Instead, she told the story of a woman who was so debilitated by chemotherapy that she couldn\u2019t walk.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill says the woman died, but was then revived. Following the woman\u2019s near-death experience, she decided to treat her disease with herbs.<\/p>\n In inspirational tones, O\u2019Neill went on to\u00a0tell the crowd that the woman hid her change of course from her family, because she knew they would have tried to get her to go back to chemotherapy.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill also told an inspirational story of a different woman with no white blood cells who came to her retreat, and by the end of a week was back to normal.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve helped many people conquer cancer,\u201d O\u2019Neill says.<\/p>\n She said that the truth about cancer \u2014 that it can be cured with herbs and diet \u2014 was suppressed when \u201cthe Rockefellers and the Rothschilds came along\u201d, referring to two wealthy dynasties.<\/p>\n The latter in particular has been the target of many conspiracy theories.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n She told another inspirational story about a doctor who discovered a new cure for serious diseases like cancer, but lost his licence to practise.<\/p>\n \u201cWhenever you see that, do you think: they must be good?\u201d she asked the crowd to murmurs of agreement.<\/p>\n Later, O\u2019Neill mentioned why the doctor lost his licence: his treatment killed a patient<\/a>. She considered this unimportant.<\/p>\n \u2018Barbara, I was sick\u2019<\/p>\n Many of O\u2019Neill\u2019s anecdotes on the day began the same way.<\/p>\n \u201cA man came up to me and said, \u2018Barbara, I was sick\u2026\u2019,\u201d she recalled.<\/p>\n The person then supposedly tells O\u2019Neill they had some horrific disease that modern medicine couldn\u2019t help, but that by going to one of her retreats or following her prescriptions, they had been cured.<\/p>\n She does not cite research papers, statistics or clinical trials.<\/p>\n Anecdotes about the miraculous recovery of patients were the only evidence she presented.<\/p>\n The story of a woman who died taking chemotherapy drew gasps from the crowd, before O\u2019Neill revealed that woman was still alive and healthy.<\/p>\n Conversely, the death of a patient directly from an untested treatment was dismissed.<\/p>\n When the doctor who administered it was stripped of his licence, it was implied to be a sign that the treatment must work.<\/p>\n In some stories, it was unclear if there were medical issues to begin with.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill spoke of a Vietnam war veteran who was afraid to lose weight. He believed it might release chemicals from Agent Orange stored in his fat cells.<\/p>\n She put him on her detox course. When, months later, he lost weight with apparently no toxic effects, O\u2019Neill counted this a victory for her system of medicine.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill mentioned that critics have questioned whether the examples she gives exist, but there is a more glaring issue. Even if the examples are real, they are entirely self-selecting.\u00a0<\/p>\n She\u2019s unlikely to hear from people who try her treatments and get no benefit.<\/p>\n Some simply won\u2019t pay for an audience with O\u2019Neill just so they can tell her that her treatments don\u2019t work.<\/p>\n Others might be unable to speak to her at all, including those who forgo mammograms or chemotherapy on her advice.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Nevertheless, through her select examples, O\u2019Neill painted a picture of the body as a self-healing gift from God, occasionally thrown out of balance, but often very much within our control.<\/p>\n Disease was held up as the result of toxins (she ranted against polyester, as an example) that generally could be cured by the right herbs, or saunas, or body wraps.<\/p>\n \u2018Rewiring the brain\u2019<\/p>\n The last lecture of the day related to mental health, at least peripherally.<\/p>\n There were some religious references throughout the lectures, but initially these were sporadic.<\/p>\n \u201cAll I am is a mouthpiece for the great god of heaven\u2019s natural remedies,\u201d O\u2019Neill said at one point, a revelation that met with a hum of approval.<\/p>\n During the last lecture, almost every point O\u2019Neill made was accompanied by at least one reference to scripture.<\/p>\n References to mainstream science became rarer and were sometimes disparaging; on group therapy, O\u2019Neill said that people should just get over their trauma and move on.<\/p>\n She said that this echoed Jesus\u2019 teaching on forgiveness, which in turn has been confirmed by modern understandings of neurology.<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill also claimed that memorising the Bible is scientifically proven to be one of the best things you can do for your brain.<\/p>\n She said God speaks to people through their pre-frontal cortex, and that neuroplasticity \u2014 the brain\u2019s ability to rewire itself \u2014 is mentioned in the Bible.<\/p>\n As evidence, she quoted Proverbs 13:20: \u201cWhoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Neill told the audience that she intends to return to Ireland next September.<\/p>\n One wonders what her words will have inspired by then.<\/p>\n The Journal\u2019s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network\u2019s Code of Principles. You can read it here<\/a>. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader\u2019s Guide here<\/a>. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A WOMAN BANNED by Australian authorities from giving health advice encouraged cancer sufferers to spurn chemotherapy at an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660755,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[60811,986,274899,103,61,60],"class_list":["post-660754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-alternative-medicine","tag-australia","tag-barbara-o","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"20261015_154651_1024\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792532771_246_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n