Teacher under woman’s ‘spell’
A South Island teacher claims German-born cosmic healer Ingrid Jander came into her life at a vulnerable moment, controlled her and encouraged her to steal from her family.
Jander, an alternative healer who claims she is a European-trained doctor, was exposed in a Stuff feature published on Sunday. It chronicled the experiences of a Cromwell family that disintegrated after Jander moved into the their home in 2017 and those of a Russian woman in Auckland who felt brainwashed by Jander and lost $200,000.
Many people have contacted Stuff to recount their own dealings with the healer, now a Naseby resident, who believes she can cure cancer and other illnesses with a biofeedback machine. She has a history of befriending vulnerable people and using their money.
‘‘She was very, very strong. For some bizarre reason I let her in and believed it all,’’ the teacher, who asked not to be named, said. She knew Jander as ‘‘Hillary’’.
They met in 2015 and she remained under Jander’s ‘‘spell’’ for over six months during which the healer persuaded her that her family were cheats and fraudsters. ‘‘Oh my God, when I look back.’’
Jander, she said, convinced her to find out about her father’s assets and hatched a failed plan to steal from him.
The spell was broken, the teacher said, when a good friend returned from overseas and made her snap out of it.
By then much damage had been done to family relationships which still remained strained.
‘‘My family still don’t really understand, so I’m hoping that by reading these articles about Jander it may be healing,’’ she said. ‘‘I was vulnerable and I wanted to save my Mum who was very sick. It was quite easy for me to get caught up. She was talking about the well-being centre she wanted to build in Naseby and Mum could come and it was possible to heal Mum.’’
Naseby appeared to be important to Jander because the position of the tectonic plates meant it was suitable for alien spaceships to land.
A Central Otago farmer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said he experienced the power of Jander’s attraction and considered himself lucky he was not sucked in.
In 2017 he had major surgery for bowel cancer, and, after a follow-up appointment, was returning home to Alexandra on the bus. He had been told the cancer may have spread to his liver, so was feeling vulnerable. His daughter and granddaughter saw him off.
‘‘We got talking after she said, ‘That little girl doesn’t want to lose you’.
‘‘She talked non-stop for 21⁄2 hours. She could cure cancer and she talked about her European medical experience. She had an element of credibility and I didn’t have the usual sort of filter.’’
He gave her his phone number when they parted and then the calls started.
‘‘She was insistent about me going to a clinic in Australia and told me not to have chemo.
‘‘Then she wanted her friend to come and live with us.’’
After about a month he cut off contact. Now recovered and feeling healthy, he said: ‘‘I’ve dodged a few bullets and that was one.’’
Dunedin builder Jonathan van de Klundert, who did renovations on Jander’s house in Dunedin’s North East Valley in 2016, said Jander had been a nightmare to work for and she still owed him $2000.
He said Jander lived with an elderly man who slept on a stretcher in a small room in the house.
‘‘He was very guarded and was like a ghost around the place.’’
His building partner and he had been appalled at the way the man was treated by Jander, he said.
Jander could not be reached.