The Garden of Eden

The distinction between a commune and a cult is blurry, and occasionally one can turn into the other very fast. Informally, the primary distinction between the two appears to rest on a shaky comprehension of how the members are handled. If everyone here is just a hippie singing songs and cultivating squash? It might be a commune there. It might be a cult if your leader forces you to wed him or makes you wait for a UFO to take you away.

A SWAT team attacked the Garden of Eden community in North Texas after deciding that they were a cult and tore their commune apart. The cause? They were looking for guns and drugs. These are other signs that your commune is likely a cult. The commune later filed a lawsuit against the city since the raid turned up nothing. It turns out that cops obtained a warrant for probable cause based on four hazy criteria.

One was that, although there was no record, the founder had been detained on marijuana-related charges two months prior. The founder then discussed bad gardening with undercover police agents. Their website referred to the food they prepare using the vegetables they farm as being "ultra dank," which to law enforcement signified marijuana. Finally, police were informed by an unnamed source that the property had guns.

When the police arrived, they discovered sweet potatoes and tomatillos but no weapons or illegal substances. The police department was sued by the commune for 4th Amendment violations, but the case was delayed for several years for a variety of factors. But in the end, it appears that the commune was really a group of kind, innocent hippies who don't even produce weed.

• Country: USA