You probably saw the TikToks. A group of people in dirty clothes, laughing while they built stick shelters and ate foraged greens, promising a life free from the "grid." It looked like a dream for some and a nightmare for others. Then the internet did what it does best: it panicked. People started throwing around the "C-word" almost immediately. But when we look at The Garden: commune or cult, the truth is a lot messier than a simple label. It’s a story about land, transparency, and what happens when radical living meets a digital audience that isn't ready for it.
The Spark That Set the Internet on Fire
It started in 2021. Julia Alice, a member of the community, posted videos of her life at a property in Lafayette, Tennessee. The aesthetic was pure "cottagecore" meets "prepper." No running water. Composting toilets. A "no leaders" philosophy. It looked like a hippie paradise.
Then came the questions.
"Can anyone just show up?" Yes.
"Is it free?" Mostly.
"What happens to the cats?" (That one got weirdly intense).
The Garden, officially known as the Pine Ridge Community, wasn't some ancient secret society. It was a 20-acre plot of land intended to be a "sustainable intentional community." But the moment it hit the TikTok algorithm, it was no longer just a group of people living in the woods. It became a global Rorschach test. To some, it was a beautiful escape from capitalism. To others, it was a terrifying cult waiting to happen.
Why People Scream "Cult" Every Time They See a Commune
Honestly, it’s understandable. History has taught us to be wary. When a group of people moves to the middle of nowhere to start a "new way of life," our brains immediately go to Jonestown or Waco.
But there’s a massive difference between a commune and a cult.
Cults usually have a charismatic leader. They have "exit costs," meaning it’s hard or dangerous to leave. They isolate you from your family. They take your money.
The Garden? It had none of those things. There was no "Dear Leader." In fact, the lack of leadership was actually one of their biggest problems. If you wanted to leave, you just... walked to your car and drove away. People did it all the time. Yet, the suspicion remained.
Why? Because they were "weird."
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We’ve become so conditioned to a specific way of living—9-to-5 jobs, indoor plumbing, Amazon Prime—that anyone rejecting those things feels like a threat. We assume there must be a dark secret. If there isn't a leader, we look for one. If there isn't a fee, we wonder how they’re "really" paying for it.
The Tyler Milligan Incident
If you want to understand the The Garden: commune or cult debate, you have to talk about Tyler Milligan. He was a guy who showed up at the community and started filming. He wasn't a "member" in the traditional sense, because membership was a loose concept.
He posted videos that felt "off." He talked about "the project" in ways that sounded ominous. He made people uncomfortable.
The community eventually asked him to leave. That’s the irony: a "cult" would have tried to brainwash him or keep him there. The Garden just wanted him gone because he was ruining the vibe and potentially putting people in danger with his erratic behavior. But for the millions watching on their phones, Tyler was the "proof" they needed that something was wrong.
The internet doesn't do nuance. It does heroes and villains.
Radical Transparency is a Double-Edged Sword
The Garden’s biggest mistake—or maybe its biggest contribution—was being too open. Most intentional communities are private. They have vetting processes. They have "quiet periods" for new members.
The Garden invited the world in through a smartphone lens.
They showed the "shitting in a hole" part of off-grid living. They showed the disagreements over how to build a kitchen. They showed the flies. They showed the dirt. In a world of filtered Instagram influencers, this level of raw reality looked like "deprivation." To a suburban viewer, a child playing in the mud near a compost pile isn't "nature," it's "neglect."
This is where the E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trust) of communal living comes into play. If you talk to experts like those at the Foundation for Intentional Community (FIC), they’ll tell you that what The Garden was doing was actually "Anarcho-Primitivism" or "Social Ecology" in practice. It’s a legitimate, albeit radical, political and social philosophy. It’s not a crime to live without a shower.
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The "No Leaders" Trap
Here is where the "commune" side of the debate gets tricky.
While they didn't have a cult leader, they had a "consensus-based" system. This means everyone has to agree before a decision is made. It sounds fair. It sounds democratic. In reality, it’s a nightmare.
If one person doesn't want to build a fence, the fence doesn't get built. This leads to what sociologists call "the tyranny of structurelessness." When there are no formal leaders, informal leaders emerge. Usually, it’s the person who has been there the longest or the person who screams the loudest.
This power vacuum is often what makes people feel like they’re in a cult. If you feel like you can't challenge the "unspoken" rules of the group, it feels oppressive. But that’s just bad management, not necessarily a sinister plot.
Comparing The Garden to Actual Cults
Let’s look at the facts.
- Financial Control: In the Landmark Forum or Scientology, you pay. In The Garden, you contributed what you could. Many lived there for free.
- Isolation: Cults cut you off. Garden members had phones, went to town for groceries, and invited the literal world to watch them on TikTok.
- The "Great Escape": To leave a cult, you often need an intervention. To leave The Garden, you just needed gas money.
When you weigh these against each other, the "cult" label starts to fall apart. It was a disorganized, experimental, and highly visible commune. It was a group of people trying to figure out how to live outside of a system they hated, and they were doing it badly in front of an audience of millions.
What Most People Get Wrong About Intentional Communities
People think communes are about peace and love. They aren't. They are about work.
If you don't chop wood, you freeze. If you don't plant seeds, you don't eat. The "scary" footage people saw of The Garden was often just the reality of subsistence farming. It’s grueling. It’s messy. It’s not for everyone.
The controversy surrounding The Garden: commune or cult was less about the group itself and more about our collective anxiety regarding the future. We are obsessed with "prepping" and "homesteading," but we are also terrified of it. We want the aesthetic of the garden, but we don't want the dirt under our fingernails.
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The Aftermath: Where are they now?
The original Tennessee location faced immense pressure. Local authorities got involved. The "cult" rumors led to harassment. Eventually, the core group moved on. They didn't disappear into a bunker; they just sought more privacy.
Some members started new projects. Others went back to "normal" society. Julia Alice, the woman who started the viral firestorm, continued to document her journey, trying to de-stigmatize the way they lived.
The "Garden" still exists in various forms and locations, often under different names or as part of a larger network of rainbow gatherings and land-share projects. They learned a hard lesson: the internet is the ultimate "leader," and it is much more judgmental than any commune elder.
How to Tell if a Group is Actually Dangerous
If you’re ever tempted to join a group like this, forget the TikTok comments. Use your own brain. Look for these specific red flags that separate a "messy commune" from a "dangerous cult":
- The Checkbook Test: Do they demand your life savings or control your bank account?
- The Family Test: Are you discouraged from calling your mom or seeing your old friends?
- The Question Test: What happens when you say "I think this idea is stupid"? If the answer is "You’re silenced/shamed," run. If the answer is "Let’s talk about it for six hours until everyone is bored," you’re just in a commune.
- The Leader’s Lifestyle: Is the leader living in a mansion while you’re in a tent? This is the biggest red flag in history.
Moving Forward: The Reality of Radical Living
The Garden was a social experiment that crashed into the digital age. It wasn't a cult. It was a group of people who were perhaps a bit naive about how the world would perceive their "freedom."
If you want to live off-grid, go for it. But maybe keep the camera off for the first year. Building a community is hard enough without four million "experts" in the comments section telling you that you’re doing it wrong.
Actionable Insights for the Curious:
- Visit, Don't Move: If you're interested in intentional living, use the Foundation for Intentional Community (ic.org) directory. Filter for established communities that allow "visitor periods."
- Check the Legalities: Real communes have land trusts, LLCs, or 501(c)(3) statuses. If the land is just in "some guy's name," you have zero legal protection.
- Skill Up First: Don't go into the woods without knowing how to build a basic structure or preserve food. Dependence on the "group" for basic survival is how power imbalances start.
- Study the Philosophy: Read The Tyranny of Structurelessness by Jo Freeman. It’ll explain why "no leaders" often leads to more drama than having a clear manager.
The story of The Garden isn't over, because the desire to "drop out" of society isn't going away. Just remember that true freedom usually requires a lot more planning—and a lot more shoveling—than a 60-second video can ever show.