Who is Chris Butler, ‘guru’ of Trump pick for chief spymaster Tulsi Gabbard

The founder of the Hawaii-based Science of Identity Foundation is openly hostile to Islam. His followers treat him like ‘God’s representative on earth’.

Chris Butler's Science of Identity Foundation professes to combine teachings of yoga with elements of Hindu theology. Photo: SIF website
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Chris Butler's Science of Identity Foundation professes to combine teachings of yoga with elements of Hindu theology. Photo: SIF website

Americans often write to their lawmakers to express their views about a certain nominee for a cabinet-level position ahead of their confirmation hearings.

But never have such letters warned lawmakers against confirming nominees because of their “deep ties” to a secretive cult in which devotees prostrate before their guru and add bits of the mentor’s nail clippings to their food. Until now.

The person in the eye of the storm is Tulsi Gabbard, a four-term US congresswoman from the US state of Hawaii with links to the Science of Identity Foundation, a fringe offshoot of the semi-monastic and globally present Hindu organisation Hare Krishna.

The foundation was formed in the 1970s by one Chris Butler, and has since been described by defectors as a cult.

If confirmed at a hearing by the Senate Intelligence Committee later this week, Gabbard will become the director of National Intelligence (DNI), which is the top spymaster position responsible for leading 18 intelligence agencies, including the CIA, with a budget of nearly $75 billion.

Her detractors say Gabbard’s alleged allegiance to the so-called cult and its mysterious founder can compromise national security. Her loyalty to the group may lead to her passing on sensitive intelligence to her guru.

A spokesperson for President Trump, however, said Gabbard has “no affiliation” with the Science of Identity Foundation and the repeated attacks on her faith and loyalty are “false” and “bigoted”.

This is despite the fact that Gabbard has repeatedly spoken highly of the reclusive spiritual leader over the years, and her family’s connection with the group are well-documented.

Here are five things that we know of Butler, the little-known leader of the cult whom Gabbard calls her “guru dev” or spiritual master.

Before Butler, there was Bhaktivedanta

Butler’s Science of Identity Foundation is an offshoot of the Hare Krishna movement, which was launched in the US in the 1960s by an Indian man called Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

The objective of the movement was to spread a 500-year-old Hindu sect known as Gaudiya Vaishnavism - devotional worship of Hindu deity Krishna and his consort Radha - among Americans.

Bhaktivedanta visited Hawaii in 1971 where he met 23-year-old Butler. That meeting changed the course of life for the young man who would one day gain national recognition for being the guru of Trump’s nominee for the top intelligence position.

A ‘self-styled’ guru

Butler had made an early name for himself in Hawaii as a young yoga teacher and surfer. Born to a prominent doctor and anti-war activist, Butler has been described as a “self-styled guru” who dropped out of college and immediately began attracting followers by blending yoga teachings with aspects of Hindu theology.

Upon meeting Bhaktivedanta in 1971, Butler “turned over” his disciples to the Indian man and took up a new name for himself: Siddhaswarupananda, a Sanskrit word which means a “spiritual form full of bliss”.

The new identity ensured that people recognised him as an initiated disciple in the growing Hare Krishna movement.

But Butler had a mind of his own. Bhaktivedanta would often reprimand him for using non-orthodox teaching methods. For example, Butler would object to Bhaktivedanta’s order that the newly initiated disciples shave their heads and wear robes.

No organised religion

Formally known as Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa, Butler started diverting from Bhaktivedanta’s standard practices relating to family life and dress codes.

Contrary to the group’s teachings, Butler married and had children while allowing his disciples more personal freedoms.

After Bhaktivedanta passed away in 1977, Butler set up the Science of Identity Foundation, which marked the start of his independent spiritual journey.

According to Butler, the Science of Identity Foundation is a resource, not a religious organisation. It has no official hierarchy.

“I’m not a Hindu, I’m not a Christian, I’m not a Buddhist, I’m not a Muslim,” Butler told The New Yorker magazine. “I’m an eternal spirit soul—an aatma, part and parcel of the supreme soul.”

However, Butler seems to understand the usefulness of a concise, recognisable religious label in politics. That is why he told Gabbard to identify her religion as “transcendental Hinduism”.

The New Yorker profile of Gabbard noted that she used precisely the same phrasing to describe her religious views in a subsequent conversation in the congressional dining room.

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What Butler preaches

The Science of Identity Foundation professes to combine teachings of yoga with elements of Hindu theology while encouraging followers to practice vegetarianism and abstain from gambling, smoking, alcohol, drugs and extramarital sex.

Butler is openly hostile towards Islam. His tapes of anti-Islam propaganda have been widely circulated online.

Gabbard, his most famous disciple, gained notoriety in the 2010s when she regularly criticised President Barack Obama for his refusal to use the term “radical Islam” and not declaring “Islamic extremists” as “our enemy”.

A cult by all means

Former members of the Science of Identity Foundation call themselves “survivors of an abusive cult” where they were forced to worship Butler “akin to a god”.

A New York magazine article described Butler as “vulgar and vindictive” who mocked and insulted people publicly. “And when he would do that — that’s a form of Krishna’s mercy.”

One former member of the group recalled treating Butler as “God’s representative on earth”. “It was an intense feeling that you’re displeasing someone that’s your only connection to a spiritual path and life.”

Butler denies these descriptions, and so does Gabbard, who claims she never heard him say anything hateful.

“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.”

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