BIO
A native of New York City's Hell's Kitchen, Helen O'Neil was born to wealthy bohemian parents as one of the first biracial Americans in the United States. The product of a troubled home wracked by abuse and eventual poverty, she left at age 13 to support herself through off-the-books work and a full scholarship to an elite boarding school. However, the trauma led to her withdrawal from Harvard University when she was a 17-year-old freshman.
After landing in the NYC shelter system, Helen began the arduous job of working her way off the streets. Isolated and in poor health, she earned a bachelor's degree while doing data entry and washing dirty jock straps in a corporate gym. However, the vicious racial and sexual politics of the New York streets took their toll on her, leading to a nervous breakdown.
In her mid-twenties, Helen began to explore the idea of becoming a nun. Taking up bodybuilding and mind-body warrior training, she cured several chronic conditions using nutritional supplements and lifestyle changes. Today, she is a published journalist and the author of several books.
Helen's professional interests include:
- social and economic marketplaces
- altered and extreme states of consciousness
- mysticism
- apocalyptic and dystopic literary fiction
She lives in New York City. Her hobbies include:
- pan-Asian vegetarian cooking
- experimental classical and electronic music
- math
- meditation
- used bookstores
- sacred fashion
- personal finance