The Cult of Tulsi Gabbard - Part 1
Love her or hate her, you definitely don’t know her…
Part 1 of an ongoing series…
Donald Trump’s announcement of Tulsi Gabbard as his pick for Director of National Intelligence, or DNI, signaled that the enigmatic Army reservist and former Democratic Congresswoman had entered yet another phase in her never-ending political metamorphosis. Since her earliest days in politics, Gabbard has undergone a series of seemingly baffling “evolutions” on major policy issues, making it difficult to comprehend her political trajectory. The standard explanation would be that Gabbard is the latest in a long line of left-ish figures who moved right for opportunistic reasons, much like David Horowitz and Christopher Hitchens before her.
Certainly, this view makes sense in light of Gabbard’s history of presidential endorsements. In 2016 Gabbard resigned from her position with the DNC to endorse Bernie Sanders, refusing to bend the knee to Hillary Clinton even after Sanders suspended his campaign. Four years later, she inexplicably ran against Sanders, then endorsed Joe Biden after dropping out of the race. Now, after four years of aggressively courting the reactionary right, she has endorsed Trump, who proceeded to name her as his DNI. Seems like a pretty open-and-shut case of a left-to-right transformation.
Yet this surface-level analysis of Gabbard’s career obscures just how utterly bizarre so many aspects of it have been. Many of Gabbard’s flip-flops have seemed to defy common-sense political considerations. Her supporters would of course argue that she was never motivated by politics, only principles. Yet as we will see in this series, this is far from the case, as Gabbard has shifted her stance on so many issues so many times, the only possible explanation is political expediency. However, this should not be taken to mean that Gabbard has no real beliefs. She most certainly does. It’s just that the only way to understand them is to look at her upbringing, something very few people have done. Which is surprising, because Gabbard’s origin story is by far the most disturbing thing about her.
The truth is that Tulsi Gabbard was raised in a cult, and that the cult’s extremist ideology and abusive, dictatorial leader have deeply influenced her politics and her career. And, as far as anyone has been able to tell, they still do.
The Science of Identity Foundation
Tulsi Gabbard was raised in something called “The Science of Identity Foundation,” which is about the most cult-sounding name imaginable. The group started in Hawaii as an offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement in the 1970s, and since then has spread to New Zealand and the Philippines. It originated with an American man named Chris Butler, who is now a reclusive figure rarely seen in public. After founding the Science of Identity Foundation, Butler adopted the Sanskrit name “Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa,” which cult members including Tulsi continue to refer to him as.
Gabbard’s parents, Mike and Carol Gabbard, have been associated with Butler and the Science of Identity Foundation since the group’s earliest days. Naturally, they raised their daughter in it as well. While Tulsi Gabbard is often described as the first Hindu Congresswoman, this is basically untrue. As the journalist Christine Gralow, who has done impressive research on Science of Identity and Gabbard’s connections to it, noted, “To call this abusive, money laundering cult ‘Hindu’ and Gabbard ‘the first Hindu in Congress’ is an insult to Hinduism.” And according to ex-Science of Identity member Ian Koviak, “We did not identify at all as Hindus growing up in Butler's group…that's a new thing that really fits in with the Tulsi agenda.” And in a rare interview, Butler himself told the New Yorker “I’m not a Hindu,” and admitted that he instructed Tulsi to use the label for the sake of expediency: “I told her, ‘Why don’t you use the phrase “transcendental Hinduism”?’”
Indeed, as soon as you scratch beneath the surface, it becomes obvious that this highly secretive organization is not Hinduism, but a cult, in the worst sense of that word. According to Gralow, “members worship Chris Butler (birth name Kris Butler), who virulently espouses hatred of Muslims, LGBTQ individuals, former followers, journalists, scientists, and anyone who questions him.” Butler claims to be God’s representative on Earth, and accordingly members must serve and obey him. The Independent spoke to several former members, who similarly explained that “the group’s teachings are virulently homophobic, often anti-Islamic and misogynist,” and that “they were forced to worship Butler, who is considered to be akin to a God.” Chris Butler’s estranged brother Kurt told Gralow that his brother “is indoctrinating his followers into a life of know-nothingism and ignorance, while giving them the delusion that they know everything that really matters.” This especially included a “staunch anti-science stance,” which stands slightly at-odds with the name “Science of Identity.”
The testimonies of members who have managed to escape the group paint a picture that is far darker than this. In a Medium post from 2017, an ex-member identifying herself only as “Lalita” describes the Science of Identity Foundation and Butler in terms so unsettling they deserve to be quoted at length:
Chris Butler held this larger than life presence in my childhood. Everything I did I had to think about how it benefitted him. He was my parents [sic] spiritual master and they looked to him for guidance on everything, from what to eat, to how to raise their children, and they did it all without question…I was raised to believe Chris Butler was God’s voice on earth, and if you questioned him or offended him in any way, you were effectively offending God, and because we believed in reincarnation, that meant that you would be reborn as the lowest lifeform imaginable and then have to spend eon’s [sic] working your way back into God’s good graces. So questioning the leader was spiritual suicide, which was seen as worse than death. So no-one questioned. Chris Butler also would ridicule the intelligence of anyone he didn’t like, belittling anyone he felt was questioning his authority even slightly. He demanded the utmost dedication and loyalty from his followers and if he didn’t get it, the punishments were swift and severe. I remember hearing stories of people who were told they weren’t allowed to eat because they didn’t make food to his liking, who were not allowed to sleep because there was a light making a buzzing noise in the house, and the follower didn’t have the foresight to fix the issue ahead of time.
Literally everything we did had to go through Chris. If you wanted to work outside of the group, you had to ask his permission. No-one could get married without his consent. From the late 80's all of us kids were removed from public schools because he didn’t want them influencing our minds away from our service to him. So from that point we were home schooled, until there were schools established in the Philippines. After that all the children were sent to the boarding schools there for intensive schooling…a lot of the kids were traumatised [sic] by the environment, as it was almost prison like. Classes were on hygiene and cooking and all the ways that they would need to serve Chris Butler best…by the time I officially left the Science of Identity Foundation in 1997, just before I turned 20, I had only received up to a 5th grade education.
Lalita described Chris Butler’s philosophy as being all about “how evil and out of control gay people were, how women were inferior and sub human and [they] should be controlled by their husbands, how messed up and evil the outside world was, and how his relationship with God was so special, only he could lead you back to Godhead (Heaven).” She continued:
Another part of his teachings was that all life is an illusion, and because of that all relationships were an illusion. We were encouraged to not invest in any relationships other than with him, so we were in effect isolated from our parents who did their best to not love us as per his recommendation, and instead looked at him like a surrogate father/messiah figure. He was this imposing force in our life that we weren’t supposed to offend, which is frankly terrifying when you’re a small child. I remember having many nightmare’s [sic] and a condition called sleep paralysis which can be brought on in times of great stress. My sister developed stress induced epilepsy during the time when we were supposed to be taken out of school. For my parents [sic] part, they did try to keep us in school for as long as they could, but when Chris heard parents were resisting him, his directive was clear – get them out or else. Every time my parents would try to take us to school, my sister would become hysterical and then she started having seizures. That was the power he had over us.
This aligns with stories told by other ex-members who have come forward. An especially notable example is New Zealander Rama Ranson, who was raised in Science of Identity from birth by his parents, but escaped its ideological grip at the age of 15. His disturbing account of the cult’s practices can be heard on YouTube. Like all children brought up within it, the Science of Identity took a major toll on Ranson. Children are “taught…to worship Butler and his wife Wai Lana as messengers of God,” and are “exposed…to Butler’s sexually graphic, deeply homophobic lectures,” he explained. Butler’s hatred of science made things even worse - Ranson was not allowed to see a doctor or receive an inhaler to treat his asthma, because Butler did not believe in doctors. Thus, Ranson’s parents allowed him to suffer from asthma attacks, at age four, for days on end, in order to follow Butler’s will.
If Butler sounds like an insane, vindictive person, that’s because he is, according to Ranson. He told a New Zealand newspaper that Chris Butler had “crazy security around him all the time,” that members “were made to worship him like a God,” that “everyone fully hits the ground in his presence,” and that he was “a total germophobe” who lined his home with tinfoil and had “weird dehumidifiers piped in.” Furthermore, “Everyone wears surgical masks” in his presence – with “everyone” being all the Science of Identify Foundation members congregating at his home “doing all his chores.” The last time he saw his parents in person, Ranson noticed “a picture of Chris Butler's ‘old wrinkly feet with flowers all around them’” prominently displayed in their living room, which he explained was fairly normal for the cult: “They worship his feet, it's super sacred. I know that the feet of him and the feet of Krishna are sacred.”
Butler believed that children should not have access to public education, so the Science of Identity Foundation established a series of “boarding schools” in both the Philippines and Hawaii, with Tulsi’s parents overseeing the latter on the island of Oahu. Ranson described these schools as being like “a military-style boot camp.” Students there “had to wash all [their] clothes by hand, take showers at 4am with cold water,” and other things he called "Horrendous shit…full-on indoctrination.” It was this nightmarish school system that led Ranson to gradually start deprograming himself. After posting critically about the cult in an online forum, his parents, on Butler’s orders, cut him off from their lives. Ranson was even prevented by his mother and the cult from attending his father’s funeral. (Ranson has gone so far as to suggest that his father may have been murdered by the organization, though I have no way of confirming this.)
Ranson has spoken at length about his difficulties adjusting to normal society, having grown up without a real education. Others have been even more affected. Lalita appears to be permanently scarred. Her most recent post reads, “I haven’t felt safe writing for a long time…It will never be 100% safe and I accept that.” She also mentions that she “recently spent three weeks in hospital and recovery, the toll many years of suppressed trauma took shut my central nervous system down completely. I couldn’t function. It was terrifying. I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone.”
This makes sense, considering how the cult raises its young. Gralow spoke to numerous ex-members, from whom she learned that Science of Identity “schools” mostly revolved around “worship of Butler” and instructing children in the “evils” of homosexuality by forcing them to watch graphic depictions of gay sex. Koviak told Gralow that as a young student, he and the other children “watched a video produced by Mike Gabbard's Stop Promoting Homosexuality organization, which included footage of men having sex in public.” Another ex-member “reported sexual abuse at the school and was accused by school leaders of lying about it.” While the school run on Oahu by Tulsi’s parents Mike and Carol Gabbard was “more mellow” than those in the Philippines, students “were still taught to worship Butler, and they were repeatedly exposed to sexually graphic, anti-homosexual material.”
Students were also deprived of a normal education – “they did not take history classes, learn about evolution, or watch television.” Those who spoke about their experiences to Gralow “all painted a strikingly dark picture of their experiences at the school, and they all say they have struggled psychologically as adults. Four of the men used the term ‘indoctrination’ when describing the school experience.” Other students have spoken of being “regularly hungry and sleep deprived while at the school. They also all say they spent at least four hours a day chanting, often in a dark room.” One recounted, “We were always hungry. I almost committed suicide when I was there. I really wanted to go home but was told that my parents did not want me to go back home.”
Tulsi Gabbard has been extraordinarily evasive in answering questions about her early education and her relationship with Butler, although it is clear that she was raised in this environment. In 2017 article for The New Yorker, she is quoted as saying of Butler, “I've never heard him say anything hateful, or say anything mean about anybody,” and that “I can speak to my own personal experience and, frankly, my gratitude to him, for the gift of this wonderful spiritual practice that he has given to me, and to so many people.” The same article notes that “as a girl, she spent two years in the Philippines, at informal schools run by followers of Butler,” and concludes that “Gabbard's life would be unrecognizable without Butler's influence.” The Independent corroborated that “Tulsi attended a Science of Identity boarding school in the Philippines, according to several sources, and spent her formative years and schooling sheltered from outside influences.” One of those sources was Tulsi’s aunt Sinavaiana Gabbard, who was not affiliated with Science of Identity. She also told the paper that “When Gabbard ran for president in 2020, virtually her entire campaign staff were members of the Science of Identity,” which ominously suggests that the cult continues to influence her political career.
Implications
Chris Butler apparently took an interest in politics from the Science of Identity Foundation’s earliest days, according to Gralow. His “MO was to recruit influential locals who could run for office,” according to a Hawaii resident who knew him at the time. The strategy worked – “Elected officials who have been Butler devotees include former Hawai'i State Sen. Rick Reed, former Maui County Councilman Wayne Nishiki,” as well as both of Tulsi’s parents – her father has long served as a Hawaii State Senator; her mother served on the Hawaii State Board of Education. And of course, Tulsi Gabbard herself, born and raised into this unsettling organization, is the first member to be elected at the national level, and may soon take charge of the entire American intelligence community.
Unquestionably, the Science of Identity continues to influence everything Tulsi Gabbard does. Ex-member Robin Marshall told Newsweek that “Tulsi was being groomed for a political position because Chris Butler had political aspirations…He wanted the influence. It was very unusual because women in Science of Identity aren't really encouraged to do anything." An anonymous source is quoted in the same piece describing Tulsi as “an advanced devotee” of Butler.
Too few people know about all this, likely because, as Ranson explained, “They can deny anyone is a member,” and “it is very very rare you will ever find a member who will tell you they are a member of a group who follows Chris Butler.” He suggests that “members of the group often try to conceal its existence or at least obscure it by denying they have anything to do with it.” This would explain why Tulsi Gabbard is so tight-lipped about her involvement with the Foundation. Still, there are occasional moments where she has let the truth slip, such as the New Yorker interview, and this pre-recorded video message from 2015 where she publicly states that Butler, whom she refers to as “Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda,” remains her spiritual guru.
Lalita is one of many ex-members who have expressed concern about Gabbard being in power, coupled with sympathy for her position:
Tulsi Gabbard grew up in the same group that I did. She was subjected to the same environment I was. She’s still surrounded by this group and calls Chris Butler her guru. This is why the increased interest and her rise to power concerns me so greatly. I want to be very clear, I have no issue with Tulsi, as far as I am concerned, she’s as much a victim as I am, more so because she was groomed from an early age specifically for the path she is now on. What I am concerned about is the control I know Chris Butler has over her, the influence he has over her ability to make decisions, decisions that could become law and impact a whole lot of people. I know what an abusive, mysogynistic, [sic] homophobic, germophobic, narcissitic [sic] nightmare Chris Butler is. And I know what kind of relationship he has with Tulsi.
Lalita concluded that while she “truly feel[s] for Tulsi,” and hopes “one day Tulsi does reject Chris [Butler] and finds her own voice,” that so long as “he is her guru, his influence over her makes her dangerous and unreliable, because Chris is dangerous and unpredictable.” Note that this was written in 2017, and is thus not some recent reaction to Tulsi’s DNI appointment.
It’s tough to know what to make of all this. As a leftist, I’ve never devoted any sustained thought to cults. Not long ago, the idea that such a nefarious organization might groom a politician to serve its interests in office would have struck me as the plot of some hackneyed Netflix series, not a real possibility. But ever since I learned that Chris Butler once instructed Tulsi’s father Mike that “What you’ve got to do is get one of these kids to run for office,” and that it was this command which birthed Tulsi’s political career, I have been concerned at the possibility. I’m not going to pretend to know what someone like this being put in charge of the intelligence community would mean. After all, Butler and his sect are difficult to fully investigate, in part because they use Scientology-linked lawyers to sue the few newspapers who report on them. All I have to go off of are the comments made by ex-cult members, who seem to agree that Gabbard will be working for Chris Butler in everything that she does. Your guess is as good as mine as to what that will mean, but I can’t imagine that it will be a good thing.
With her origins in this disturbing cult at the forefront of our minds, we are now in a much better position to contextualize Tulsi Gabbard’s deeply strange political career, and the seemingly inexplicable series of metamorphoses that have defined it. This aspect of her life will be explored in Part 2.