This episode covers Democratic presidential primary candidate Tulsi Gabbard and her “guru dev” Chris Butler, leader of the Science of Identity Foundation. We discuss Gabbard’s idiosyncratic political views, Butler’s history as an alt-Krishna and extreme homophobe, as well as his faulty lectures on philosophy of mind and how to find a genuine guru.

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Who is Tulsi Gabbard?

Tulsi Gabbard was born in American Samoa. Her family moved to Hawaii when she was two years old. According to a New Yorker article, “she was both a tomboy and a nerd.” Tulsi was homeschooled growing up. Environmentalism was Gabbard’s very first political passion. This was born out of her love for the ocean where she enjoys spending her free time.

Tulsi’s family was very involved in politics. Tulsi’s mother Carol Gabbard was on the State Board of Education. Her father, Mike Gabbard was a leading anti-gay rights activist for a decade. In fact, he was really pissed off about a gay character on “Dawson’s Creek”. So much so he flew out to North Caroline to protest the filming of the show. According to an article in The Intelligencer, 

When Tulsi was 14, her father founded a nonprofit called ‘Stop Promoting Homosexuality America’ and began hosting a radio show called “Let’s Talk Straight Hawaii.

Gabbard began her political career when she was only 21 years old where she ran as a Democrat for the Hawaii State House of Representatives. Her father also won a seat on the nonpartisan Honolulu City Council. Mike and Tulsi co-founded Stand Up for America which promoted environmentalism. This group even received a government grant to send Tulsi Gabbard into schools dressed up as a “pollution-fighting superhero named Water Woman.” 

Tulsi is currently pro-choice and pro-same-sex marriage but when she first entered politics she was much more socially conservative due to her father’s influence. She was vocal and active in the fight against same-sex marriage and abortion rights for women. 

In 2003 Gabbard joined the National Guard. She volunteered to go to Iraq, even though it wasn’t mandatory for her to go. In Iraq, she became a medical-operations specialist and a military police officer on a base located in the Sunni Triangle. She attended an officer-candidate school in Alabama until she was deployed for a second time to Kuwait. She says her deployment in the Middle East helped form her political re-alignment and by 2012 she was pro-choice and pro-same-sex-marriage. 

Just two after the presidential election of 2016 Gabbard decided to meet with Trump to discuss the case for a future of American non-interventionism. Only a few months after that she flew to Syria to meet with the brutal dictator, Bashar al-Assad. She agreed with Assad that the U.S. military should stop intervening in Syria. 

It was in 2012 when Gabbard joined the democratic primary in Hawaii going up against the former mayor of Honolulu, Mufi Hannemann. She eventually beat Hannemann by 20 percentage points. Once she won this race the general election was a shoo-in for her and she easily beat the Republican opponent. In 2013 Gabbard was appointed vice-chair of the Democratic National Committee but eventually resigned from that position to endorse Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton. Tulsi considered Hillary a war hawk committed to increasing our military presence across the globe. 

Steve Bannon invited Gabbard to the White House to speak with Trump about U.S. foreign policy. After meeting with President Trump she said, 

I walked out thinking that there may be some opportunity to work with this Administration to shift our foreign policy in a more positive, less destructive direction.

Tulsi met with Assad again, traveling with her husband this time. She spoke to Assad about US foreign policy. Gabbard said that Assad wanted democracy for Syria and that she believed him when he said he wanted Syria to have free and fair elections. After a horrific sarin-gas attack in Syria took place, Gabbard stated that she was “skeptical” of that Assad’s government was behind them. 

Who Tulsi Gabbard’s base is exactly while in congress is a bit confusing, to say the least. According to The Intelligencer, 

Tulsi Gabbard does not behave like a representative who wants to remain in Congress; she appears to be building a political platform for another office.

Gabbard’s legislative record is comprised of constantly introducing “messaging bills, seemingly hopeless pieces of legislation and non-committee-specific, which most often involve the environment. She also voted to end the federal marijuana prohibition. She voted for a bill backed by Sheldon Adelson to end internet gambling, as well as a resolution supporting Trump’s efforts in diplomacy with North Korea. According to the Intelligencer article, 

It’s not uncommon to introduce symbolic bills meant to signal something to constituents; it’s just very hard to imagine the anti-gambling, pro-marijuana, pro-Trumpian-diplomacy constituent to which Tulsi appears to be signaling.

Tulsi Gabbard Meet Chris Butler

If asked, Tulsi Gabbard will tell you she identifies as a Hindu, the first Hindu member of congress. But there was a spiritual thought leader who played a central role in Gabbard’s spiritual journey. It’s a man she refers to in a 2015 video, as “guru dev”, which means “spiritual master”. His name is Chris Butler. As we’re going to learn, we really need to put an emphasis on “thought leader”.

Who is Chris Butler? Well, we need to back up further to 1965 to first meet A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada. AC was an elderly Indian man who started preaching in Tompkins Square Park, in New York’s East Village. This drew a decent crowd that eventually morphed into the Hare Krishna movement. With this movement, westerners were being introduced to a 500-year-old Hindu tradition known as Gaudiya Vaishnava From those early days in Tompkins Square Park until he died in 1977, AC traveled across the globe preaching.

It was during the 70’s, as AC’s message reached Hawaii, and specifically, it reached a young surfer and yoga instructor named Chris Butler. The Intelligencer describes Butler as a “30-something, tan, sandy-haired Caucasian, an aging beach boy in leis and white linen.” Butler became enamored by AC’s teachings. Specifically his annotated translation of the Bhagavad Gita. In this version, one can find out that it pleases Lord Krishna to not eat meat or spicy food (which would “cause misery by producing mucus in the stomach”). 

Bhaktivedanta visited Butler in Hawaii. Since Chris became such a master thought leader, Bhaktivedanta gave Chris a new name: Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa. However, not long after this promotion, the two men didn’t see eye to eye on spiritual matters. AC thought Butler was teaching non-orthodox Hare Krishna principles, while Chris thought it was dumb that AC forced his followers to wear robes and shave their heads. Bhaktivedanta eventually died and the Hare Krishna movement broke apart so Butler seized on this opportunity to create his own group called the Science of Identity Foundation. This spread from Hawaii to New Zealand, Australia, and Southeast Asia. 

A fun side note, According to The Intelligencer, Chris Butler’s father was a proud communist. He loved the Soviet Union and thought that North Korea was a paradise for workers. According to the article, 

When Kurt brought home a geography book from school that mentioned political repression in the USSR, his father called it “lying propaganda”.

In the 1970s a group representing itself as a multi-faith coalition of conservative-minded citizens, made their presence known in Hawaii. They called themselves the Independents for Godly Government and the dozen or so were comprised solely of Butler disciples. 

In 1984 Butler published “Who Are You? Discovering Your Real Identity,” which according to the New Yorker article, “uses examples from science to argue that materialism was false and that the self was real – and eternal.” Butler barely mentions Krishna or the Bhagavad Gita in his works. Butler says about himself,

I’m not a Hindu, I’m not a Christian, I’m not a Buddhist, I’m not a Muslim. I’m an eternal spirit soul—an atma, part and parcel of the supreme soul.

In the 1980’s Butler openly criticized same-sex attraction. He wrote that bisexuality was out of control “sense gratification”. He also cautioned that this sexual conduct would lead to pedophilia and bestiality. He said, “an increasing number of women in the United States keep dogs for sexual reasons.” 

Butler graced the world with some television specials of his tan ass teaching while chilling on a couch surrounded by his students. One of those students was Mike Gabbard. Though Mike identifies as a Catholic he was interested in Hinduism since the 70’s and even spoke with ole AC Slater about starting his own temple at one point. In 1983, when the Gabbard family moved to Hawaii they became involved as disciples for Butler. 

When Tulsi was a young girl she spent two years in the Philippines at an informal school run by the followers of Butler. Gabbard paints a pleasant picture of her childhood, where they sang spiritual songs on the beach, she learned martial arts and became a passionate gardener. However, defectors from Butler’s group told a different story. These ex-members consider themselves survivors of a cult. They say they were discouraged from attending “secular schools”. They were not allowed to speak publicly about Butler’s group. Some even told stories of members returning to Hawaii after traveling who had to be quarantined for several days so that they didn’t pass on any possible contagious disease to Butler. 

Some other fun stories from defectors include followers having to fall prostrate on the ground whenever Butler entered the room. Some even ate spoonfuls of sand that Butler walked on while others added some of Butler’s nail clippings to their food. According to the Intelligencer, when traveling Butler required the homes he was staying in to be covered in tinfoil “to protect against electromagnetic radiation.” Gabbard doesn’t believe these people are credible, saying, 

I can speak to my own personal experience and, frankly, my gratitude to him [Butler], for the gift of this wonderful spiritual practice that he has given to me, and to so many people.

Butler and Tulsi Gabbard

Butler has known Tulsi Gabbard since she was just a little girl. He says that she has “a real gravity and seriousness that was way beyond her years.”  Butler has a sort of fatherly pride of Gabbard, he compares himself to a music teacher watching his blossoming student saying,

He’s taught one of his student’s cello. And he sees that, oh, this student of mine is now playing cello in the philharmonic orchestra. And it’s beautiful.

When Gabbard was older in politics Butler says, “I told her, ‘Why don’t you use the phrase “transcendental Hinduism”?’ Tulsi has used that term to identify herself in a congressional dining hall a few years back.  Butler and Gabbard have said that the Science of Identity Foundation is not a religious organization but rather a resource. Butler claims there is no hierarchy in SIF. But he warned his followers, 

If I’m not the representative of God, and you dovetail your will with mine, then your life is destroyed. And if I am the representative of God, and you don’t dovetail your will with mine, then your life is wasted.

Despite just being a resource Butler’s followers are called “disciples” and they call him Jagad Guru or “teacher of the world”. Butler says that a guru is supposed to be “a bonafide representative of the Supreme Lord.” 

Tulsi Gabbard chalks up most criticism about Chris Butler and his cult as people being Hindu-phobic, even though Butler does not claim to be Hindu.

Science of Identity Foundation and Gabbard’s Campaign

According to an article in The Mary Sue, Abraham Williams, Tulsi Gabbard’s husband, was brought up in the same Science of Identity circles. Also, according to the Honolulu Civil Beat, Williams works for Blue River Productions, also run by SIF affiliates, which has been paid $76,000 in 2019 by Gabbard. Gabbard’s campaign also has ties to Butler. Sunil Khemany was a member of Gabbard’s campaign helping her outreach to the Indian-American community. Khemany also runs a business owned by Wai Lana, the wife of Chris Butler. He has also been identified by ex-members as Butler’s “right-hand man”. Gabbard’s husband makes videos for Wai Lana’s business. According to The Intelligencer, 

A party chair [of the Independents for Godly Government], Bill Penaroza, is the father of Tulsi Gabbard’s current chief of staff, Kainoa Penaroza. Kainoa had no political experience prior to being hired by Tulsi.

Honolulu Civil Beat reports that Science of Identity Foundation member Kris Robinson has an especially large, and unusual, role in Tulsi Gabbard’s campaign. Gabbard has paid Robinson’s company, Northwest Digital, $259,000 in the first six months of 2019, placing the company 3rd in vendor expenditures, only behind Google and Revolution Messaging, which ran Sander’s primary campaign in 2016. Robinson and Gabbard go back as far as 2010. When she was running for the Honolulu City Council, she paid another Robinson company, Honu Creative, a staggering $75 to run her campaign website. From 2013 to 2019, Gabbard has paid Robinson and his companies a total of $531,000

Given the amount of money Gabbard is spending on Robinson, one would imagine he is a big shot in political operations. Well, not exactly. Robinson has never worked for any other politician or on any other political campaign. He did run a website called Oinkfu.com that sold t-shirts. He was even willing to draw anything for $12 EXCEPT porn. Northwest Digital’s company address is a P.O. Box in Stehekin, WA, an isolated town in the Northern Cascades mountains. There is no cell phone service and no way to drive to Stehekin. Instead, one can take a 55-mile ferry trip which takes four hours, or instead travel by horse or floatplane. An employee at a lodge in the area captured the isolation with a truly disturbing reference,

It’s kind of like The Shining here in the winter. Lots of snow. Not many people.

So what exactly does Northwest Digital do? Unfortunately, it’s website is not very helpful,

There is no “About Us” page or explanation of what the company does or who owns it.

Robinson himself and the Gabbard campaign are equally close-lipped, not willing to say anything about Robinson or explain exactly what he does. 

Spiritual Homophobia

Christine Gralow, a journalist in Hawaii, uncovered thousands of pages of transcribed lectures given by Butler. The lecture shared by Gralow discusses Butler’s views about free speech on campus. They’ll let you get away with saying you’re against war,or in favor of free sex. The people who are not allowed to speak are those with “non-materialistic” values. Butler clarifies,

They’re not allowed to speak. Of course, they’re ALLOWED to but they’ll get kicked out.

Which discussions of “non-materialistic” values are “not allowed” on college campuses? Butler is focused on one particular example: any discussion that uses the word “faggot”. According to Gralow, Butler is so enamored with this word he uses it 128 times in the whole transcript. Butler thinks this word is so important because,

I can’t think of a better word because I know that that word has the connotation of negativity. In other words, it has a value judgement that comes with it.

This is to contrast with “homosexual” which has a neutral connotation and “gay” which for reasons I do not understand and Butler does not provide apparently has a positive connotation. In fact, promoting the word “gay” is a big part of the homosexual agenda,

…the homosexual population has gone way out of their way to get the people in the media to use the word ‘gay’. It was a major step for them, a major gain on their part…

But the homosexuals are wrong! It is Butler and his ilk that are truly the gay ones and not the homosexuals. After all,

…he’s the one who’s worried about AIDS… He’s the one who’s in a miserable bummer with one of the highest suicide rates…

Perhaps gay people are “in a miserable bummer” because of assholes like Butler. He rejects this answer with a reductive explanation,

…don’t tell me it’s because of all the people running around saying ‘faggot’. ‘Oh everybody’s calling me a faggot and therefore I’m always on a bummer and so I drink a lot.’ Give me a break! The media loves you; they call you ‘gay’. Why aren’t you gay? If the word can make you happy or a word can make you depressed, if my calling you a faggot makes you depressed then all the mass media’s calling you a gay should lift your spirits tremendously.

However, Butler isn’t out to put gay people on a bummer. He wants gay people to realize the error of their ways,

That’s why I use the word ‘faggot’, you see, to make you think, ‘Why? Maybe what I’m doing is negative. Maybe what I’m doing I shouldn’t be doing. Maybe rimming isn’t so great after all. Maybe the old fisting and stuff just isn’t what’s going to do it for me.’

At the very least, Butler wants to make absolutely sure that his use of this word is not a mistake or without thought; he’s thought this through very carefully,

It’s not habit. It’s a conscious decision to express, using language to express, that which you are trying to communicate. ‘Homosexual’, ‘gay’, that does not do it. ‘Shit-eaters’, that does it… Things like that. You need to get words across.

After all that, now is probably a good time to hear what Tulsi Gabbard has to say about Chris Butler,

I’ve never heard him say anything hateful, or say anything mean about anybody.

The Philosophy of Mind According to Butler

In a monumental YouTube video from the Identity of Mind YouTube channel, Butler tells us what’s what when it comes to the mind-body problem. Not only is the mind-body problem some esoteric metaphysical mind fuck that nerds like Dylan argue about for a living, but it’s also essential to figure out in order to preserve your own humanity. Butler tells us: 

I know I exist! I know I exist! And this is the fundamental reality that I can never give up! I know I exist! My self-awareness! Therefore, instead of giving up my self-awareness, I give up the materialist world-view which can’t explain my self-awareness. Any theory, any world-view, which does not take into account that which is most real, cannot be accepted. We don’t want to throw away reality… that is: the awareness of our own existence.

We’re going to throw away reality in order to protect or hold onto this world-view? This materialist world-view which holds that there’s only one element: matter?… We have a choice: we can throw away the materialist world-view, we can throw that away, or we can throw away our existence! That’s our choice… If I’m not made of matter, I must accept that I’m made of a different element.

For Butler, this different element is called a “life particle.” Or alternatively:

…“life force’, or ‘life’. Some call it ‘spirit’ or ‘spirit soul’, or whatever.” 

This is a standard false dichotomy that gurus, cult leaders, and religious leaders often use to mislead their followers. The idea is that you must accept either:

1. All things are made of matter, and therefore your consciousness doesn’t exist (which they invariably and mockingly present as a reductio ad absurdum even though it’s really just a straw man).

2. There’s, as Daniel Dennett would put it, a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious thing called “consciousness” in addition to matter.

Most contemporary materialists don’t think the mind is literally “made up” of matter. Further, even if you think that mental properties are wholly distinct from physical properties, this doesn’t have any exciting conclusions about spirits or souls or whatever. It is just as exciting as the thought that mass is wholly distinct from charge. 

It’s worth noting that this supercalifragilisticexpialidocious life particle, as presented by gurus like Butler, is simply too special to intellectually pin down in any way, shape, or form by those silly materialist scientists. So, by definition, the deck is stacked against science without rhyme or reason. It’s just too special and unique for guys in lab coats, period!

Most importantly, these gurus typically warn us, it’s the nefarious and nebulous “They” that wish to indoctrinate everyone into believing all that exists is matter so they can crush our souls and strip us of our humanity or whatnot.

That’s not to say that problems about consciousness and its relationship to the material world are easy or “solved” in any definitive sense. Only that this dichotomy is bullshit. Butler’s dichotomy is a kind of ultra-simplistic substance dualism, which I’m willing to bet Dylan will tell you isn’t even a thing that modern philosophers talk about. Contemporary substance dualisms are real fancy. Take a look at Stephen Yablo or E.J. Lowe’s work if you’re interested.

Here’s just a tiny list of dualist and non-dualist views taken from the authoritative Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy to demonstrate just how incredibly diverse and complicated this issue is: 

Property Dualism: …assert the existence of conscious properties that are neither identical with nor reducible to physical properties but which may nonetheless be instantiated by the very same things that instantiate physical properties.

Panpsychism: …regards all the constituents of reality as having some psychic, or at least proto-psychic, properties distinct from whatever physical properties they may have.

Identity Theory: …[identifies] conscious mental properties, states and processes with physical ones, most typically of a neural or neurophysiological nature.

Functionalism: According to functionalism, a state or process counts as being of a given mental or conscious type in virtue of the functional role it plays within a suitably organized system.

The moral of the story is: when a cult leader or guru tells you that “matter vs. soul stuff” is your only option, politely point them to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, turn around, and walk away.

How to Spot a Bonafide Spiritual Master

Alright, so there’s this thing called a “life particle” or “soul” (or whatever) and it’s super special and essentially it’s me and it’s you. But why should I believe Butler? What qualifications does he have to reveal such information? How do I know if Butler is a genuine guru or just a charlatan? Well wouldn’t you know, there’s a video on the Science of Identity Foundation YouTube channel that answers this very question, aptly titled: How to Find an Genuine Guru. 

Someone in Butler’s audience asks him, “How do I know that you are…” Butler interrupts and finishes her question, “…a bonafide spiritual master? That is a good question. An intelligent person must ask this question.” Butler says, “You can know from God.” But he pauses a bit because he realizes that even for him that’s a profoundly stupid thing to say. After some visible mental struggle, he says there are three ways (which, incidentally, Butler emphasizes are in no particular order):

• From within the heart. Your heart will tell you that by placing your life in Butler’s hands, you place your life in God’s hands.

• The bonafide spiritual master teaches from the essence and correct interpretation of scripture.

• The bonafide spiritual master must have been taught by another bonafide spiritual master all the way back to the first bonafide spiritual master who was taught by God himself!

Butler isn’t asking for blind faith. Over and over he says you must check all his claims. And how do you check them? From the heart of course! Oh, and also checking to see if his spiritual master is from a long lineage of spiritual masters all the way back to God. And also to make sure he has the correct interpretation of scripture. But since you can only get the correct interpretation from bonafide spiritual masters, then I guess you just have to take his word for it. Butler says this by no means a “simple thing”. 

After Butler tells us over and over to check every claim he says and not rely on blind faith, he also warns against “blind skepticism”. He then seems to kinda realize he’s shown his hand a bit, so he goes off on a rant about blind faith to steer everyone’s attention away from that blunder. 

So, what if I don’t go with blind faith and have my doubts? What if I make the wrong decision when choosing my bonafide spiritual guru? Butler says that you’ve got nothing to worry about because by definition you’ve got nothing to lose! 

If I’m a charlatan, then you’re protected by God in your heart and you’re protected by scripture. So you don’t need to worry about that.