A Swiss music teacher has been charged with infecting at least 16 people, mostly his students, with HIV – after telling them he was a healer and the blood injections would “open their third eyes”.

The Bern public prosecutor said the man had deliberately infected 16 people with HIV between 2001 and 2005.

The 51-year-old man, described as charismatic and guru-like, was not himself HIV positive, Blick newspaper reported on Thursday. He got the infected blood from one or more people, the paper said.

One man told doctors at Bern’s Insel Hospital in 2004 that the only way he could have caught HIV was through the injection that his music teacher healer had given him. He had been told the needle and injection was a kind of acupuncture treatment, Blick reported.

After two more HIV cases showed up, all with connections to the “healer”, the hospital conducted a systematic investigation of further possible infections that could be traced to him.

A total of 18 cases were identified, leading to the charges currently being pursued by the authorities.