This man is Chris Butler (b. 1948), aka Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa. He's the founder of the Science of Identity Foundation (SIF), a fringe yogic sect based in Hawai’i.
He is the “guru” of #Tulsi Gabbard, who was a child of the Science of Identity cult.
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1/ Science of Identity revolves around the despotic whims of one man: Butler, who is treated as the embodiment of God on earth. Its members isolate themselves from outside influence: they marry each other, send their kids to SIF schools (Tulsi attended such schools), & so on.
2/ SIF members who leave the group are shunned. Outsiders who report on the group are stalked & harassed, in the dickish style pioneered by the Scientologists. Christine Gralow (@realchrissyg), who has investigated the cult extensively, has been the subject of such treatment.
3/ Check this, from SIF’s official website: “Jagad Guru appeared in this world in 1948 as Chris Butler.”
Um, OK.
3a/
And: “Perhaps one of the most difficult concepts for the Western mind to comprehend in relation to traditional yoga and Vedic thought is the question of spiritual authority.”
Dig? Chris Butler = THE spiritual authority.
4/ Here is a harrowing first-person account from a Science of Identity cult survivor:
medium.com/@lalitamann/an…
5/ To be fair, Butler isn’t as bad as Hubbard/Miscavige, Koresh, Raniere, or even Osho/Rajneesh. But he ain't no prince.
Jagad Guru Siddhaswarupananda Paramahamsa is a virulent homophobe who loves to use the word “faggot” in his teachings:
6/ Tulsi’s “guru” also really REALLY dislikes Muslims.
7/ Tulsi Gabbard’s parents bought what Jagad Guru was selling, hook line & sinker. She & her siblings were raised in the cult, immersed in the homophobic, Islamophobic teachings of Chris Butler.
This article is FASCINATING:
culteducation.com/group/1298-sci…
8/ Tulsi’s old man ran a nonprofit called Stop Promoting Homosexuality America, as one does. This explains why Gabbard, ostensibly a Democrat, was such an enthusiastic opponent of gay marriage…and in such a bizarre, tone-deaf sort of way:
9/ Tulsi was steeped in Science of Identity & her guru for the first two decades of her life. It’s all she knew. She married young, to another SIF-er. The first time she left the cult was during her tour in Iraq.
War was her first exposure to the outside world.
10/ To be clear, it’s not her fault that her parents got brainwashed & raised her this way. I feel bad for Tulsi. I don’t think she’s a bad person. I think she’s a decent person who was brainwashed & is being manipulated.
11/ The problem is that Tulsi is still involved with the Science of Identity cult. Chris Butler remains her guru. She has not renounced him.
Much of her staff & insular inner circle are SIF people.
See this, by @realchrissyg:
12/ All cult leaders want legitimacy for their operation. As Tom Wolfe said, “A religion is a cult with political power.” Butler is desperate for the larger Hindu community to recognize SIF.
What better way to achieve this than by being personal guru to freakin' POTUS?
13/ JFK famously had to assure the American people that, although Catholic, he was not beholden to the Pope. That was for a 1960-year-old cult that had long since become a religion! (Note: I was raised Catholic so am allowed to say this).
npr.org/templates/stor…
14/ I don’t think Tulsi Gabbard is capable of delivering such a speech w/r/t Chris Butler. I think she's still very much in his thrall. Her odd record, especially concerning foreign policy, suggests this is so.
She even SPEAKS like she’s in a cult, seems to me. Detached. Weird.
15/ Again: I have sympathy for Tulsi. I do. But someone who has spent her formative years being manipulated by a cult leader needs to find herself. To heal. To move to NYC & live with a fabulous gay man. NOT run the free world.
Bottom line: It makes no sense to replace a president who is a puppet of Putin with one who is a puppet of this guy:
[END]
PS
h/t @IsadoraBright
Please check out & support Christine Grabow’s website and her work on this important story:
meanwhileinhawaii.org
PPS
OMG:
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