Tulsi Gabbard’s ties to Chris Butler, a controversial spiritual leader with extreme views and a history of allegedly mistreating his flock, have made headlines throughout her political career. And, after Donald Trump nominated her to serve as his director of national intelligence, one of the top Cabinet posts leading the national security apparatus, some fear her guru could be set to wield a dangerous level of influence.
Many of those with the most vehement concerns are people who formerly believed in Butler, whose main organization is called the Science of Identity Foundation. In conversations with TPM over the past week, they described their worries and the unique degree of involvement the guru has had in Gabbard’s political career. This has included, according to one ex-follower, Butler receiving detailed, regular “reports” on her campaigns and his group sending devotees to Gabbard’s events where they were “coaching everybody on how to behave.”
One person who has raised alarms about Butler’s sway over Gabbard is Anita van Duyn, who said she was among his flock from 1977 until 1994.
“He micromanages everything and, if you’re his disciple and he puts you in politics, he is going to micromanage everything,” Van Duyn said of Butler in one of a series of phone conversations with TPM. “That is my fear, that we’re really putting a hollow person in this position. That could be dangerous if the information gets in the wrong hands. And I do believe that her allegiance is first to her guru, second to her family, and third to America.”
There is a long, dark history of political figures from religious minorities having their fitness questioned on the basis of their background. Faced with growing questions about her association with Butler over the years, Gabbard and her allies have tried to dismiss the criticism as religious bigotry. However, van Duyn and other former followers of Butler have made clear the issues surrounding Gabbard’s guru are unique to his conduct.
“This is not about religion. Anyone can follow any religion they want,” van Duyn said. “This is about behavior … and who a person takes guidance from, and who they listen to. That is what we’re looking at here.”
Van Duyn has gone public with her concerns about Gabbard’s fitness for the powerful position, which is often colloquially referred to as “spymaster,” ahead of the confirmation hearings that are set to start on Thursday morning. Along with giving multiple interviews, van Duyn sent letters to lawmakers getting set to vote on Gabbard’s nomination, warning that any sensitive or classified information she would receive as intelligence director could be “communicated to her guru.”
Another former Butler follower also pointed to that possibility in a series of conversations with TPM, and said the guru has a history of receiving in depth updates on her political work. The ex-follower said Butler “was fully informed and involved” during one of Gabbard’s campaigns. Specifically, the former follower said Butler’s devotees gave the guru detailed reports on her operations.
“They were sending reports of Tulsi’s campaign, of everything from every social media post she’d made, and all the comments she made, and just general reports about her campaign straight to Butler,” the ex-follower said.
The former follower of Butler’s group who described the “reports” the guru received on Gabbard’s political operation requested anonymity for fear of retaliation. They provided TPM documentary evidence and photos — including some showing them with members of Butler and Gabbard’s families — to verify their association with the sect and knowledge of its leadership.
“I don’t believe Tulsi herself is especially vindictive. Chris Butler is, and she’s essentially just a puppet,” the former member said.
Gabbard is an Army National Guard veteran and active member of the reserve. She was born in American Samoa before her family moved to Hawaii. Both of her parents, Carol and Mike Gabbard, have an extensively documented history of being among Butler’s devotees. The former follower described Mike Gabbard as one of Butler’s main “deputies” in Hawaii. Mike Gabbard did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
After serving on the Honolulu City Council, Tulsi Gabbard held one of Hawaii’s two U.S. House seats as a Democrat from 2013 until 2021. Gabbard also mounted a brief, quixotic presidential campaign in 2020.
Key members of her team on Capitol Hill were followers of Butler’s organization. Her donor lists were also studded with people affiliated with Butler. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported that, in 2017, a “longtime political adviser” of Gabbard’s who was also one of Butler’s followers helped oversee an effort in which her congressional campaign hired a P.R. firm to “suppress coverage of an alleged pyramid scheme” with links to the sect.
In 2022, Gabbard, who had been warming to Trump and his allies for some time, quit the Democratic Party. She became a Republican two years later.
A staffer who worked with Gabbard during her political career said there were concerns about the sect’s involvement with her team and operations including potential “lines of communication.”
“Lines of authority were unclear and there was maybe a sense that people outside of the operation — unclear who or unclear where — had some influence and sway over what was going on in the operation,” the staffer said.
The staffer requested anonymity — including about the part of Gabbard’s political operation in which they worked — to avoid potential retribution, particularly if Gabbard is confirmed as director of national intelligence. That position would grant her oversight over the FBI, CIA, and other agencies in the intelligence community.
These worries about Butler’s relationship with Gabbard — and her political operation — are particularly notable since the guru has a history of extreme positions and demands of intense fealty. And, while some religious leaders have long sought influence through endorsements and advocacy, Butler and his group took things a step further. Butler’s network has repeatedly sought to place members in elected office, an effort that included establishing its own political party.
Internet forums on cults, Hindu web communities, and past reporting describe Butler’s sect as a stiflingly insular and tightly controlled community. The former members who spoke with TPM repeated some of those accusations.
“We lived in fear of his anger and him being displeased with us, and he didn’t care,” the former follower said of Butler.
For her part, van Duyn rejects the “cult” label. However, her assessment of the environment inside Butler’s organization was similar to the charges levied by some of the group’s many critics. Van Duyn said she feels Butler’s group is best described as a “high demand, high control sect.”
“When we were involved with him, we were a very secluded, insular group of people. Basically, you didn’t have much to do with the outside world unless your instructions were to do something … and the only instructions you got were from him,” van Duyn said. “It wasn’t your parents. It wasn’t your family. It was him. He controls everything.”
Butler, whose parents came from the mainland, moved to Hawaii in his youth and began to build a spiritual following as a yoga teacher. In 1971, he became a disciple of A.C. Bhakitvedanta Swami Prabupadha, the founder of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness. Bhaktivedanta’s organization, which is also known as the Hare Krishna movement, is part of the Gaudiya Vaishnava Hindu tradition. Broadly, the movement is dedicated to meditation, chanting, yoga, and service done as part of dedication to the Hindu deity Krishna.
Butler, who is now in his 70s, ultimately split from the larger Hare Krishna movement and built his own spiritual empire. The exact size of Butler’s following is unclear, but his organization has an international footprint. According to one of the Science of Identity’s websites, ”many disciples and students … have also started yoga organizations and schools in different countries.”
Among other places, the group has notable presences in California, the Philippines, New Zealand, and Hawaii, where Butler resides. Rather than a single individual entity with a defined list of members, Butler’s organization consists of multiple groups and ventures centered around the Science of Identity Foundation, and filled with his followers. A 1977 investigation published by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser newspaper noted the various “business enterprises” linked to Butler and his followers included a health food store, a publishing company, multiple newspapers, and a juice brand. Aspects of this network continue to run today, including the health food store.
Tulsi Gabbard campaigns for president in Malibu. (Photo by Ronen Tivony/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Butler and the Science of Identity Foundation did not respond to a request for comment from TPM that included specific questions about the alleged “reports” he received on Gabbard’s campaign operations, the group’s presence at her political events, and the accusations of mistreatment that have dogged him over the years. The Trump White House referred a request for comment to Alexa Henning, a spokesperson for Gabbard, who responded with an emailed statement that described questions about Gabbard’s relationship with Butler as “bigoted smears” and emphasized her qualifications.
“Apparently, TPM has nothing better to do than keep parroting the same false attacks and bigoted smears the Democrats have been pushing against Lt. Col. Gabbard for years. She is an active member of the US Army Reserve who holds a TS/SCI security clearance with over two decades of service to our country. She served eight years in Congress on the Homeland Security, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees,” Henning wrote, adding, “The corporate media and Democrats oppose her because they know she will speak truth to power and isn’t afraid to take on rogue bureaucrats and those who politicize the IC, and this is why President Trump nominated her for this critical role.”
Henning also stated Gabbard “has no affiliation with this group.”
Van Duyn rejected the notion that Gabbard’s ties to Butler can be boiled down to an official affiliation.
“She is his disciple,” van Duyn said of Gabbard. “There is no organization. There is nothing you become a member of.”
Gabbard herself called Butler her “guru dev,” which means teacher, in a 2015 video.
The Trump administration shot back at the Wall Street Journal’s reporting on Butler and Gabbard by calling it “Hinduphobic smears.” However, former members have said Butler’s practices deviate sharply from Hare Krishna and other branches of the Hindu religion. And, while Gabbard’s defenders in Trump’s operation have attempted to dismiss critical coverage of her relationship with Butler by framing it as an attack on Hinduism, the former members who spoke with TPM said Butler never identified his movement as Hindu internally.
“We were never allowed to say we were Hindus,” van Duyn said.
The former member also said Butler specified to his devotees that they were not Hindu.
“None of us in there identified as Hindu, specifically, because Butler told us we were not Hindu,” the ex-member said.
Butler also distanced himself from that description in 2017 when he responded to the New Yorker in one of the first national magazine pieces on his relationship with Gabbard.
“I’m not a Hindu, I’m not a Christian, I’m not a Buddhist, I’m not a Muslim,” Butler said. “I’m an eternal spirit soul — an atma, part and parcel of the supreme soul.”
In that same interview, Butler talked about his relationship with Gabbard. He compared his reaction to her political success to that of a music teacher watching one of their proteges play.
“He’s taught one of his students cello,” Butler said. “And he sees that, oh, this student of mine is now playing cello in the philharmonic orchestra. And it’s beautiful.”
During her career, Gabbard has touted her pioneering status as a “Hindu-American,” and has gained crucial support from the community. The former Butler follower said they hoped the community would re-evaluate Gabbard.
“It’s hard for people who identify as Hindu to let go of Tulsi Gabbard because she’s been so successful, but I think she’s kind of … a poison drop in the bucket because she can swear up and down she’s Hindu, but her ultimate devotion is to Butler,” the former follower said.
Rather than Hinduism, the ex-follower of Butler who spoke to TPM said he generally referred to his teachings as “bhakti yoga” or “devotional service.”
“And that meant devotional service to Krishna or his representative, which is Butler,” the member said.
Indeed, according to many accounts, the main focus of the group’s worship is Butler himself.
“He really does have a huge ego and thinks he’s God’s conduit,” van Duyn said of Butler.
That veneration has reportedly included followers eating his toenail clippings in their food. The ex-follower who spoke with TPM claimed some devotees drank water his feet were washed in or poured it on themselves. They also said followers were encouraged not to think for themselves.
“We were literally told not to let our mind dictate what we did because we saw the mind as evil and … that we had to get our mind under the control of Krishna and Butler,” the former follower said.
Puranjana Dasa writes a newsletter for Krishna devotees that has included criticism of Butler. In more than a decade of writing, Dasa said he has heard many troubling stories from people who were linked to the Science of Identity Foundation. In a call with TPM, Dasa said there are “bad elements going on” in Butler’s movement.
“He’s very arrogant and I’ve heard that he’s like germaphobic and he’s kind of becoming like Howard Hughes,” Dasa said of Butler. “He can’t stand anybody getting too near him.”
The ex-follower of Butler also said the guru insists on “hospital level” sterilization.
Despite his concerns about the group, Dasa also shared a unique perspective on Gabbard within the context of Trump’s many other controversial Cabinet nominees.
“Tulsi has her problems. She has her flaws. She has her ill motivations, you might say, but looking at a lot of the people that they’re passing right now, I’m honestly not too impressed with any of them … I wouldn’t want to discredit her necessarily as being worse or better than the rest of the group,” Dasa said, adding, “All the candidates he’s brought out are just, they’ve got some loopy little something about them. You know what I mean? They’re just off.”
Some of Butler’s extreme views have been mirrored in Gabbard’s political positions. Butler, for example, denounced gay people in a late 90s recording obtained by the Daily Beast where he described them in with a series of vicious slurs.
“I think it’s sinful, I think it’s ugly, I think it’s unhealthy, I think it’s unnatural,” Butler said of the gay community.
Early on in her career, Gabbard joined her father in anti-gay activism. She later became supportive of the community and described the shift as a “personal journey.” Butler also has taped lectures that have been dubbed “Islamophobic.” After arriving on Capitol Hill, Gabbard repeatedly pressed former President Barack Obama to use the term “radical Islam” and to refer to “Islamic extremists.” While many Republicans used similar rhetoric, Gabbard’s push to have Obama embrace the term “Islamic extremists” was particularly notable since, at the time, she was a Democrat. The ex-follower who spoke with TPM believed those positions were evidence of Butler’s influence.
Then-House candidate Tulsi Gabbard speaks on stage with other female members of Congress during day one of the 2012 Democratic National Convention. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“She was trying to harass Barack Obama about calling them ‘Muslim Islamic extremists’ specifically,” the former follower said. “I think that was directly from Butler. He got very pedantic about using certain terms for things.”
Butler’s organization has a history of promoting political figures that mirrored his values. In 1976, a newly formed political party called “Independents for Godly Government” ran a slate of 14 candidates for local and federal office in Hawaii. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser subsequently linked the party to Butler’s group.
Bill Penaroza, one of the initial Independents for Godly Government U.S. House candidates is the father of Kainoa Penaroza, who, years later, served as Gabbard’s chief of staff on Capitol Hill. Bill Penaroza did not respond to a request for comment. Kathy Hoshijo, the other House candidate on the Independents for Godly Government slate, offered up a policy platform that included criticizing other politicians for not offering “prayerful supplication to God.” Her fiery rhetoric clearly echoed Butler’s own critiques of materialism. Hoshijo did not respond to a request for comment on this story.
“We must have leaders who know that true happiness comes from serving god, not from attaining power, wealth or fame … otherwise we will have a hell on earth,” Hoshijo said in August 1976.
Tulsi Gabbard’s father, Mike Gabbard, also pivoted from anti-gay activism to a career in local politics in Hawaii. He mounted a House bid in 2004 and fielded questions about his extensive ties to Butler and the group’s past attempts to back candidates. Mike Gabbard described himself as a “Catholic” who was “eternally thankful to Chris Butler.”
The Honolulu Star-Advertiser’s 1977 investigation further said “a loose community of businesses” and organizations linked to Butler’s group helped the Independents for Godly Government candidates with “bodies and bankrolls.” Butler’s network has given Gabbard similar support in her political career.
Earlier this month, the New York Times noted the “group’s followers have contributed volunteers and money to Ms. Gabbard’s campaigns over the years.” The former Butler follower who spoke to TPM said they participated in “sign waving” for Gabbard and joined her at events including congressional town hall meetings where they received “coaching” from Butler’s group on “when to clap,” the way “to show enthusiasm” and “how to behave.” According to the ex-follower, the group’s leaders heavily directed its presence at Gabbard’s events.
“They would sprinkle them throughout the crowd, feed them questions to ask and tell them what to say,” the former follower said.
There was a good reason for all this effort and enthusiasm. The former follower described Gabbard as a fulfillment of Butler’s longstanding political mission.
“The way we all saw it in the group was that the world is basically just full of sin, and garbage, and people not wanting to follow God. And the whole goal was, if you have godly leaders to restore godly people to government, then you can kind of get the population back in line,” the ex-follower said. “And it was kind of like, that’s what Tulsi is doing, she’s a godly person, she’s going into government to try and corral the unruly population back in line.”
Van Duyn offered a similar view of Gabbard as the culmination of Butler’s political mission.
“He’s got people who he’s been trying to get into politics for a long time, and Tulsi is his golden girl,” van Duyn said.
