Olivia Newton-John and John Easterling reveal how she changed her life with hallucinogenic medicine and cannabis
Her former boyfriend vanished, she was on antidepressants and she also got breast cancer. Olivia Newton-John has now revealed the unusual overseas trip she took to find a way to heal.
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Olivia Newton-John was the picture of health, holding hands with husband John Easterling as they told of how she is winning her battle against stage four breast cancer.
The couple was speaking onstage at the Oregon Convention Centre in Portland at the 2019 Cannabis Science Conference to discuss their experiences with cannabis and plant-based medicines.
Newton-John, wearing a white shirt and black jeans, was given a standing ovation from a packed audience that included daughter Chloe Lattanzi and her fiance James Driskill as she walked onstage with her husband on Thursday afternoon local time.
In an emotional 40-minute talk, the couple spoke openly about their relationship and also revealed how she had taken the powerful hallucinogenic medicine Ayahuasca on trip to Peru with vitamin mogul Easterling, a year before they were married.
She said she had visions afterwards, including seeing herself and Easterling “in another lifetime”.
Newton-John said the experience helped her cope with the disappearance of her former boyfriend, Patrick McDermott, who vanished off a California fishing boat in 2005.
She said the drug helped her get off anti depressants and that it also “opened up her heart” to her new love.
The couple talked about how they first met in the early 1990s and how Newton-John is now using cannabis grown by Easterling to combat her cancer.
Newton-John also said she has weaned herself off morphine painkillers with cannabis, which she called “the most amazing thing”.
Easterling said: “Olivia’s cancer markers are moving in the right direction. This is the third recurrence of stage four metastatic breast cancer and this is not normally what you see happen. We’re absolutely thrilled”.
Earlier, he had walked on stage and said: “I’m Amazon John and you know my lovely wife Olivia Newton-John. We’re here to share with you our experiences with plant medicine.
“Essentially, I’m a treasure hunter and Olivia is a treasure. That kind of explains out relationship!”
A smiling Newton-John said: “I’m thrilled to be here. When we were talking about this event we realised our whole lives together has been about plants and plant medicine.
“In 1992 when I had breast cancer for the first time he gave me some herbs to take that really improved my mobility and me consciousness and I felt so much better from the moment I started taking them. From then on, herbs have been a part of my life.
Newton-John told how she and John first met in the early 1990s when she went to a health convention with friends where he was giving a talk.
“My friends took their mother who was 82 years old and she took some of the herbs home and afterwards she apparently had so much energy she was up all night cleaning her closets. So the next day she said to me I want to go back there and get more herbs from that man.
“So they introduced me to him and they invited him to come to California to do a talk on the rainforest.
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“After the talk we invited him to stay with us in my guesthouse and he left early in the morning, I didn’t see him leave, but he drove off a cliff and fractured his back.
“We received a call from the hospital with a message saying John was refusing to take painkillers and could we bring his own painkiller called Recoverzon which was his own formula of herbs.
“It was the first time I was really aware of the power of plants because John came back to our house, Chloe was about nine at the time, and we massaged his back with the Recoverzon and to my amazement he left the next day.
“The doctors told him he was the fastest-healing broken back patient they had ever seen so the herbs were working internally and through the skin.
“I was going though breast cancer at the time and John started sending me herbs that really helped me a lot.
“I’ve been taking Amazon herbs since then.”
John said he had no idea who Olivia was at the time they first met and “wasn’t into her music.”
He added: “She was living in Hollywood so I figured she must be a nut case!”
Olivia, laughing, said: “You proved that right!” John added: “But the more I got to know her I realised she has a genuine caring for other people and animals, plants and the rainforests.
“We saw each other at an event we both supported once a year but we became friends.”
She also told how just over a decade ago she had previously given Easterling a puppy and with years later he brought the dog to an event they were both at in Florida.
“The dog remembered me, he remembered me,” she said.
John added: “I realised then she was a healer who healed with her songs. It was an extraordinary thing.
“I went to see her at her hotel and she was by the pool in a bikini and I said, ‘Hey, I know who you are, you’re a healer. I want to take you to Peru!’”
A year later they went to Peru which Olivia said “was the most incredible experience. It changed my life.
“John took me up river and we met the lovely indigenous people.”
During the trip, John recommended that Olivia take Ayahuasca, something which he had done every visit himself over 12 years.
He and Olivia both took a thimbleful of the concoction, but Olivia was sick and the next morning he went to see her and she was still throwing up.
“I said to her, ‘Wow, you’re really integrating with the plants and animals.’”
Olivia chipped in: “I said I’m not integrating, I’m disintegrating!”
She added: “I was so sick, I was throwing up, I was so embarrassed. But John insisted on staying and he brought some music down to keep me calm but then I started having visions.
“I saw John and myself in another lifetime. If you’d told me beforehand that was possible I would never have believed it.
“But I said to him, I see you standing above me and you’re wearing a really interesting textile tunic.”
Easterling said: “She explained what the tunic looked like and it was a tunic from a pre-Inca civilisation that I had.
“I fell on the floor. After that, we had a lot of conversations and by the end of the day we were asking each other what we wanted to do with the rest of our lives.
“She said she wanted to open a cancer wellness centre in Australia and was only $180 million short and I wanted to make sure tens of millions of people had the experience of Amazon plants in their body.
“And we’ve been together even since that day.”
Newton-John added: “Taking Ayahuasca was the most amazing experience for me because I had been gong through the most difficult couple of years.
“I had an ex boyfriend who disappeared on a boat and I had a lot of emotional difficulty with this. I took anti depressants for a few months.
“But after this experience it was like someone had taken a Windex and wiped my brain clean.
“I felt clear, I felt cleansed. I stopped the antidepressants immediately. It opened up my heart to John. I thank the Ayahuasca for those two things.”
Easterling also spoke about how they got married in Peru a year after her Ayahuasca experience and revealed pics from the small, intimate Peruvian ceremony which was attended by just the couple and their Peruvian friends.
Newton-John also said some of the traditional Peruvian clothes from their wedding will be sold at auction in November along with some of her iconic costumes from her movies Grease and Xanadu.
“We’re having a garage sale!” she said.
Easterling said he first grew cannabis in 1970 but has gotten back into growing the plant over the past seven years.
Newton-John said: “John has been growing me these plants that have really changed my life.
“I weaned myself off the anti depressants with the Ayahuasca but I weaned myself off morphine with cannabis, which I want everyone to know.
“I had a fractured sacrum at the time, too, and I was determined not to become addicted.
“Thankfully I was able to get off it and I want people to know that because there is no reason why people should be dying or going through terrible withdrawals when this is possible.
“When I started taking it my pain level got so much less and manageable and I was more mobile, I was sleeping. It took a lot of anxiety away.
“It covered everything, actually.
“It was the most amazing thing.”
As the audience clapped, Easterling said: “Olivia’s cancer markers are moving in the right direction.
“This is the third recurrence of stage four metastatic breast cancer and this is not normally what you see happen at this stage.
“We’re absolutely thrilled with what’s going on with that.
“And we continue to do that along with a variety of mushrooms and minerals and oestrogen blockers.
“The only pharmaceutical she is on is an oestrogen blocker because it is an oestrogen receptive cancer.”
He added: “We just got back from a trip to Spain and Ireland and Florida the week before last and she’s amazing!
“I’m running in the airport trying to catch up with her! She’s pulling our bags, I’m just running behind.”
Olivia ended the talk by saying to John: “I want to thank you for growing these wonderful plants for me.
“So let’s keep working with these plants and let’s heal people.”
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