The Garden: Commune or Cult (2023) s01e01 Episode Script
Welcome to the Garden
[man 1] Let's go then.
[man 2] Are people ready?
[Patrick speaking]
People are misled,
mass manipulated.
People have been tricked
into living lives that don't
serve them or each other
or their family.
Their energy
is being siphoned off
to serve the machine.
And the reality is becoming
more and more clear.
Society needs
to be burnt to ashes.
[suspenseful music playing]
My goal is nothing less than
to change the entire world.
[woman] We're open to anybody
at any time.
[man] It's not a safe place.
[Tree] We're here creating
something new.
We're gonna burn it.
[man] If I don't conform,
I am outcasted.
[woman 1] There's a reason
they're off the grid.
[woman 2] For the love
of all humanity.
[woman 3]
The Garden is a cult.
You are putting
us all in danger.
Stop filming.
[woman] We are going
to tell our true story.
[dramatic music playing]
[birds chirping]
[Tyler] I come up here
on this property
to get my mental health
in check.
Like I just unplug,
free of worries,
free of paying bills.
You're free to do whatever
the [bleep] that you want.
The beginning of me prepping
was when I was
in my military career.
That's when I first saw
the ugliness of humanity.
How do I prepare
for the worst case scenario?
Because when it comes
to prepping as Americans,
we don't know [bleep].
[gunshot]
[producer speaking]
Right in the face.
So as a kid,
I was constantly bullied.
I was a tiny scrawny kid.
I was poor.
I was the weird kid.
And then eventually
I kind of fought back.
And from that point on,
I was not to be [bleep] with.
All right, so I am looking
This is his heart.
That doesn't taste good.
As I was looking
stuff up online,
I came across a very
interesting young Irishman
called Tree is Alive.
His name is Tree.
Very interesting character,
and he's on this commune
called The Garden.
I'm gonna give you a tour
of The Garden.
Lunch is being made.
Chickens are chilling
under the tree.
Homeboy over here
chopping wood.
[Tyler]
They don't like society.
They just wanna be left alone
on a piece of land.
This is how you turn a tree
that would hardly fruit at all
to one that would fruit
for up to a hundred years
by doing some
Frankenstein [bleep].
This is like post-apocalyptic
wonderland.
What we're doing here
is a little bit unusual
for most people
in their lives.
You know, like right now,
I am [bleep] into a pit.
You ready for that?
[bleep] yeah.
[upbeat music playing]
So here we are.
We're at The Garden.
It's 21 and a half acres.
[gunshots]
[Julia speaking]
[laughs] It sounds
like fireworks, right?
It's like a celebration.
So this is the greenhouse.
It needs a lot of work.
This is our outdoor kitchen.
[Vibe] This is our five pot
fire pit.
The main pit where we cook
most of our food.
Rocket stoves, that boils
water in about two minutes.
[Tree] That's the shower.
This black wire holds
the water
and then the sun beats down
onto it, heating it up.
-[producer speaking]
-No. I hardly shower.
I shower like once a month.
Like I don't
I'm in the woods, you know,
like who am I showering for?
-Oh, the TV? No.
-[Julia] Yeah.
This is the schoolhouse.
To our left is our library.
This is the sauna.
We have a pool table.
These are our chickens.
And we also have like
14 roosters right now.
I make a great rooster
noodle stew.
[producer] Oh.
Right behind me
is my favorite spot
on this whole land.
It's the compost toilet.
Swiff it in a bit.
What do you smell?
You smell a little mustiness,
but it's not much
because we have so much air
getting to [bleep].
And once you finish,
you put this sawdust on it,
that's gonna allow it
to compost.
This is probably a few months
worth of [bleep] yeah.
It smells sweet.
The type of person
that flourishes
within this community
is a messy person
because we are messy.
Every sort of person
has shown up at The Garden,
from city folk, to redneck,
to hippie, to artist.
[Julia] Some people, for them
it's a family they never had.
Some people look at
the state of the world, like,
I need to do
something about this.
I grew up suburban,
you know, high school prom.
And then I discovered that,
like, being in nature
in a really, like, raw form
is what made me
feel most alive.
Then I'll go
and I'll see my friends
and they'll, like,
have a reaction to, like,
a mouse or a spider,
and I'm like,
oh, right, like you don't live
in the woods.
Rewilding, we call it.
What it feels like
to be like a wild animal
in line with the earth
and trying to connect
with that wildness
as much as possible.
-[all cheering]
-[exclaims]
[man] Yes. Yes.
So as I'm peeing here,
it's collecting my nitrogen
and storing it,
and then later on,
it's gonna be spread
on The Garden
and feed the plants.
Maybe we're not just wasting
our [bleep], you know,
maybe we can use it to help
bring more life
into this space, you know,
so our pee is sacred.
It's something
that can actually free us.
Well, of course there's gonna
be a collapse in society.
There always is. There's no
endless civilization
that just keeps on going.
People are wildly unprepared,
even in the most basic skills.
[Tree] But that's why
we have The Garden.
We are the aftermath
of the destruction of society.
[producer speaking]
Yeah. Right now,
it's in Patrick's name.
[Patrick]
We don't wanna hit too hard.
We do wanna be kind of
sensitive of the older tree.
There we go.
There we go.
-Woo.
-Cool.
Fifteen years ago,
me and my friend Tim,
we started dreaming about,
I don't know,
living more free.
You know, we both
hitchhiked and traveled
and we found this area
and built a toolshed,
built a outhouse,
grow our own food,
collect our own water,
use our own fuel sources.
And ever since then,
it's been like
kind of growing exponentially.
We're gonna burn Saturn
because Saturn represents
all the evil people that are
trying to control the world,
and we're gonna burn it.
[producer speaking]
Yeah. No, not really.
The earth's my home.
We're leaving The Garden.
We're gonna get new land.
We're gonna go to Missouri.
[Tyler] We have this new land
that they have
out in Missouri.
And they said that they're
They need all the help
they can get
to build another commune.
This spot in Missouri,
it's been part of the plan
to buy other pieces of land.
[Julia] It's kind of like
the mission of The Garden.
The dream is that we have
spaces like this
all over the country.
So this is kind of like
the central starting hub.
This is your one chance
to really utilize your skills.
Do you have what it takes to
build an off-grid community?
Some of the issues
with being open door
is that you don't always get
the right person.
This commune,
everyone's welcome.
I used to have ultimate trust
in everyone.
That's why I invited
the whole [bleep] world
to come to The Garden.
I'm here at The Garden
and let's go see
what everyone's up to.
Tree was inviting the whole
world to The Garden
just radically, like,
"come on down,
here's the address."
Another TikToker
has just arrived.
Garden keeps growing. [laughs]
We all thought
it was so funny.
We were, like, "yeah, sure,
invite the whole world."
We were going viral
and people were loving it.
[Tree]
What you think of The Garden?
-I'm in love.
-Dream, I love it here.
I wanna take care
of the chickens.
-[Tee] Woo!
-[laughter]
They were, like, oh, my gosh,
this is an option?
And they wanted to be a part
of it, but something switched.
The Garden is most
likely a cult.
This is part three
on The Garden
and why I think it's a cult.
It's not a safe place.
They attacked everything
about it.
[woman] They recruit people
off of TikTok.
This is a cult.
And the bootleg
Ed Sheeran guy, like,
what is that?
Hundreds of people saying that
they were gonna murder me.
They forced me
into this car at gunpoint.
It is a [bleep] cult.
FBI was called on me.
[Tree] Do we live in a cult?
Do we?
-Carl, do we live in a cult?
-No.
[woman] Like, you even have
to answer the question
whether or not you're a cult.
That's suspect.
Cult, cult, cult, cult, cult.
I've been, like,
so flabbergasted by the fact
that people think
this is a cult.
Like, you The
You are born into a cult.
Society right now is a cult.
You are told how to live.
That's a cult.
You have leaders.
That's a cult.
A cult is a job.
It's your work.
And we don't even see it.
Like how It's so wild.
It's so wild.
I'm not pre
Maybe I'm preaching.
I don't know.
I [bleep] preach sometimes,
but I'm just trying to talk.
[Julia] Waves of threats.
So we closed the doors
for the last three years,
but it's like, you know,
how are you gonna
try to get the word out
without trying to get
the word out, you know?
So for the first time ever,
we are allowing
a film crew to document
our whole community lifestyle.
We're not playing it safe.
We are screaming
from the rooftops
because, like, the whole world
situation is not safe.
[Tyler] If this isn't a cult,
but they just
are just weird people.
I'm all for that.
But I'm not afraid
to dig around a little bit
to find out, is this a cult?
Who's the leader?
Who runs the show?
And why are you guys
doing this?
And they're gonna [bleep]
answer that.
[tense music playing]
This is basically
the deconstructed sanctuary.
Things that I brought
to share with the community.
Starting a new land project,
you need lots of tools.
I don't even know
what some of this stuff is.
Then I have these.
These are my favorite.
You can use it for anything
that you feel
called to use it for.
I owned a cosmetology business
for a little over six years.
I decided to let my business
go because
Um
the universe told me to.
I mean, I know people
probably don't get their hair
done often,
so I can do haircuts for them.
I brought the sink to do
scalp massages for people.
This is for the shampoo chair.
Biodegradable glitter.
We're gonna do some Brazilians
for tick prevention
is what I was thinking.
We'll see who's gonna
be down for that.
It's just what I can bring.
This is what I bring
as an offering
to share with community.
It's gonna be fun.
I came on for the Missouri
project and
there's still been moments
that I feel like an outsider.
[Tree] Narayah just wants
to follow me
as we do the tour.
It's like so weird.
If anyone was following,
it would make me feel
uncomfortable.
Narayah is a newcomer.
And I don't know
what she was doing.
Yeah.
Can you just leave me alone?
Like, let me, like
I don't wanna be followed.
She's been filming
a lot of things
where people
didn't know about.
-[Narayah] So, what you doing?
-[man] Uh
[woman] Describe what this
experience was like for you.
[Narayah] We're getting
boo-boos fixed.
I wanted to integrate myself
into The Garden community.
And I like to document things.
So I started filming
to get to know everyone.
Good morning.
It's been this, like,
suspicious,
like, energy put on me.
[Tree] Wow.
[Julia speaking]
[Tree] Yeah.
Straight away she's,
like, causing a problem.
-Like, it's like--
-[Julia] Just don't,
just don't, just don't.
[woman] A lot of people
don't like us.
-[man] Yeah.
-Because of the way
the last time
we got publicity went.
I think it's a little scary
having people film us.
It's been really scary
for everybody thinking about,
like, putting our whole life
on blast.
You know, especially,
I mean, we've already gone
through it.
[Tree] Super dangerous,
though, I tried.
The internet hated me.
If this doesn't go well
or whatever,
the stakes are really high.
It's kind of scary.
Maybe after TikTok to, like,
expose this lifestyle
because we could become
under ridicule.
But the situation
in the world is pretty dire.
To us, the importance
of getting the message out
is, like, worth the risk,
you know?
We have crop failures
all around the world.
Flooding and drought,
political upheaval.
People in the world
are losing hope
and things getting better
because things seem
so [bleep] bad.
So there's not much reason
not to do this.
[producer] Are you the leader
of The Garden?
No. I am not the leader
of The Garden.
That role is shared.
A good portion of the group
considers themselves
anarchists.
Anarchy doesn't mean no rules,
it means
no hierarchal structure.
That self-governance
is possible.
The power is in our hands.
We're the workers.
We are the grease
that greases the wheels
and we can grease
our own wheels.
We can put our energy
and our resources into us.
And there's probably
still gonna be people
that hate on us for it but,
what else are we gonna do?
Like do it in secret?
There are other people
just dying to get off the grid
and they don't know
how to do it.
I did it.
I left everything behind
to be here with you guys.
It's like
we're all in this together.
[suspenseful music playing]
My prediction is by 2030,
we'll see significant
collapse of society.
Enough collapse that it'll be
apparent to the masses.
With a changing world,
no one space
is necessarily gonna be safe.
Things might go down
in Tennessee
and the community
might not be safe there.
Missouri is a great place
to have a new spot
because it's in line
with our existing routes.
We have networked
up into South Dakota.
This is a big step
in actually developing
a network
of communities
that we can flow between.
[producer speaking]
Whoa.
But what is a cult?
[laughs]
[men howling]
[singing in foreign language]
[Tree] Yeah. Yeah.
[Tree] Yeah.
[Shine] Uh-huh. Yeah.
You know, since like
the whole TikTok drama,
I've been insanely paranoid.
The CIA, the FBI
are definitely on us
and I don't even
They could even be
one of you guys.
They could be
one of these newcomers.
They're already probably here.
[Patrick] Our security system
is our intuitions
about people.
[Julia] Uh-huh.
[Tree] Yeah.
[instrumental music playing]
[Tyler] The military
has given me
a lot of physical pain,
emotional pain, mental pain,
anxiety, PTSD.
I need to have
a strict routine.
I cold plunge,
I eat right and I exercise,
because otherwise
my mind will melt.
When I leave for The Garden,
number one that sticks
in my mind is my wife.
Let's go. Come on.
That is very,
very hard for me,
because number one,
like, I'm her guard dog
and I know that
she doesn't necessarily
feel safe when I'm not there.
She's my partner in life.
She is literally
everything to me.
And that's why
it's really hard
when I leave her.
It's gonna be really hard.
Do you have any concerns
about me going to The Garden?
I mean don't put
your [bleep] in people.
Do you wanna have sex
with anybody else
while you're out there?
That would not be
and that would not be okay.
-No.
-No.
I don't care if you're naked.
I'm very comfortable
being naked
and my wife is very
comfortable being naked.
It's that primal state
of being.
We've talked about
like bringing in a third, uh,
but it would be a female
because I can't necessarily
provide
what a female
can provide to her.
[chuckles]
See?
Um
[producer speaking]
A vagina?
He feels very heterosexual
and I feel very much
like I'm a bisexual.
And he was very understanding
from the get-go.
He was like, "Well,
if that's ever something
that you need,
you know, let's talk about it.
Like let's
Talk to me about it."
-But I get to participate.
-Figure it out.
-That was the one rule.
-Because he's
a heterosexual male.
Just saying.
I have begged and begged
and begged Heather
to come on this adventure
with me.
So that's the ultimate goal.
But she told me, you know,
there's like no way.
[Heather] As like a culture,
we're obsessed
with the end of the world.
The Mayans and the Incas,
for god's sake,
predicted the end
of the world.
I don't know if it's gonna be
in this lifetime or not.
I just know like
I'm gonna enjoy the [bleep]
out of electricity
and hot water while I can.
Are you gonna be
able to like call me
and stuff while you're there?
Uh, I really hope so.
No. I mean, I'm gonna be
really worried
about you if I don't hear
that you're okay.
-Just come home to me.
-I know. I will.
But if [bleep] gets crazy
just like,
think about like coming home
and coming home safe.
I'll come home.
[instrumental music playing]
[Patrick] Today is moving day.
We're leaving The Garden
to go to the new space
in Missouri.
There's gonna be
a big caravan.
It's a lot like herding cats,
packing wood and tools
and plants,
things we need
to start a new space.
[Julia] Are we doing
the normal thing?
[Tree] Yeah,
it was more like this,
is like, seems like
-out of
It just seems like
-Uh-huh.
I look like a crazy man,
you know?
Do you wanna keep going
with the mullet thing?
Oh, 100%.
-Okay.
-I'm a mullet guy now.
It's crazy, you know, um,
last time this one year, like,
we cut my hair here
and then all of a sudden,
we found a bird's nest
with ginger hair in it.
[producer speaking]
We're both traveling
in Europe,
uh, and we both wanted
to go to
We were both like
kind of on this path
of checking out
intentional communities.
We found a rideshare
on Facebook
to go to this Rainbow
in northern Sweden.
And then we traveled
in a car together
for four days
up to the Rainbow Gathering
in the Arctic Circle.
It was gorgeous.
Just being in nature
with people swimming,
like, in the rivers
and eating fruits
and cooking over fire.
And it was like the most alive
and like the highest
I ever felt.
When I first met Julia,
I thought she was
maybe too clean for me,
um, too bougie
a little bit, too hot.
Yeah, that's for sure.
But now we're married.
[Julia] My parents
have really embraced Tree.
I think for a while
it was hard
because he doesn't conform,
you know, and it
It's kind of inspired me
to not conform.
[Tree] Julia's role
is the smarts for sure,
like she went to university.
She does a lot
of the paperwork,
a lot of the organization
kind of stuff,
a lot of the background work.
Keeping everything afloat
and making it legit.
I'm bringing you bricks, Tom.
[man] I'm tired, but
[indistinct chatter]
[Julia speaking]
[Narayah speaking]
-[woman 1] Thanks.
-[woman 2] Okay.
Anybody know
how this got in here?
[man speaking]
Oh, Amish auction?
[Narayah]
Nope, I've had it since then.
Why is it in here?
This is a notebook that
I carry with me regularly.
[Tree] Yeah. Narayah,
I don't know, stuff can
-Stuff just ends up--
-No, a personal item
-that I keep
in my travel trailer.
-[woman] Might wanna--
[Tree] Oh, yeah.
You know what?
That was probably me
because I love going through
-everyone's personal buses
and taking out books.
-[Narayah] I'm just saying.
I don't know who took it,
but it just seems like
one big manipulation.
[Tree] That book
has been in there for days.
[Patrick]
Everybody's read it, right?
[laughter]
I'm pretty sure
it was left there,
um, from whenever we went
to the Amish market.
This a hundred percent
I did not leave in there.
I'm sorry.
That must feel really scary.
[Tree] It seemed to me like
she had just left it in there
and forgot about it.
[laughs]
It's finally happened, guys.
We have a film crew.
We're lined up
and we're about to head
to a new piece of property
and start from scratch.
Let's go.
We're ready.
-[man] Ready.
-All right. Let's go.
Woo!
Let's go.
[upbeat music playing]
[singer] Fire at will ♪
Fire at will ♪
Fire at will ♪
Fire at will ♪
[Patrick] All the power
of the world is in our hands
and we'll change everything.
[singer] Bad reputation
No hesitation ♪
Let's start messin' up
You're not one of us ♪
[Heather]
I was Googling your Garden.
This guy right here, I tried
to like run a background
report on him
and nothing came up,
like nothing.
That's not normal,
especially if he
is an immigrant from Britain.
Because I'm a private
investigator,
I have access
to search databases.
Run this guy,
uh, Patrick Martion.
[Heather] When you look up
this guy's name,
it's like connected
to the Rainbow Collective.
Rainbow Family.
Holy crap, 191 arrests.
Narcotics distribution,
interference
with federal officers.
[Tyler] This Patrick guy,
his name is connected
to the Rainbow Collective.
There's a lot of weird [bleep]
on the internet
about the Rainbow Collective
and that seems very cultish.
The Rainbow Family has been
on like the FBI watches
for a really long time.
[Patrick]
So I was born into Rainbow.
Rainbow was family.
It was really awesome.
It was really wholesome.
It was just coming together
in the woods
and building a village.
Quadruple stabbing
and pit bull attack.
But so far, that's the only
like violent thing we've seen.
-That's a lot.
-Fairly harmless.
Four people got stabbed.
[man] They had their guns out,
their tasers.
[man] I was blocking hippies
from attacking you.
[producer speaking]
Sure.
[producer speaking]
[Patrick] Communal living
has been demonized
by the media
and the government.
-[man] NYPD.
-[woman] Yes, sir.
Everybody knows
about Jonestown or Ruby Ridge
but they don't focus on
when it does work.
Instead they focus
on when it went ugly.
Every homicide case I have,
it doesn't just happen,
like 90% of crime
is not random.
It's multiple people
doing a lot of stupid [bleep]
for a long time.
[Tree] Come on.
[woman 1] Come on, here we go!
[all cheering]
[man 1] Woo!
[man 2] Yeah, buddy. Woo!
[woman 2]
We made it to the new land.
[woman] The Garden
was born out of Rainbow.
I'm really, like,
I'm really nervous.
I'm really nervous
about you going out there.
[suspense music playing]
[instrumental music playing]
This property is 55 acres
of pure potential.
[Tree] Isn't it insane,
the potential of this land?
It's [bleep] wild.
In just 24 hours,
we got benches,
we got a fire pit,
we got a stove, we got a sink.
[Julia] Right.
Our first council
on this new land.
-Woo-hoo.
-[woman] Woo-hoo.
[Julia]
First topic we have is water.
Um, I realized quickly
this morning
that we only have like
our personal water.
[Julia] But we do need
drinking water.
But the pond, from the pond.
If anyone wants to use muscle,
we can go to the pond
and get the buckets
and get them
and bring them over here.
Any other water plans
can be discussed
with the water committee,
which is Jag, Bodie,
Soul, and Tree.
So the next topic
is newcomers,
our visitor process.
Six or seven people
that reached out online,
that wanna come help us
with this new land project.
[woman] Are they all
coming at once, together?
[Julia] No, I think
it's kind of spread out
around the next month.
My thinking
is there'll be like
a period of time for a visitor
that they're a visitor.
I don't know what
time period that is.
[man speaking]
-[woman] Yeah.
-[Julia] Yeah. Okay.
[man speaking]
If the group feels
uncomfortable,
then the group can decide
that visitor is not
the best fit at this time.
Here at The Garden,
a visitation process
is kind of like
a trial period.
Someone could come
and visit for 10 days
and then after 10 days,
they could propose
to stay longer
and then that proposal
would be either accepted
or denied in a council.
[Julia] Okay.
So 10 seconds of silence
to consent on accepting
visitors for 10 days total.
[woman] Woo-hoo.
[Julia] Bring them in.
[people applauding]
[instrumental music playing]
[metal creaking]
[thuds]
[Tyler] I am putting
the final touches
on my bug-out bag.
Tomorrow morning
is when I leave.
This is my prepping area.
Things I like to keep orderly
and the things
that I need the most.
And this is my bug-out bag.
This is a tarp,
preventing hypothermia,
staying dry.
Cordage,
you can make traps with it.
The machete,
it's made to hack.
This helps making
your base camp way easier.
This is a quick way
to defend yourself.
I'm not afraid to do violence
to someone.
I have a problem with anger.
I may not seem like that,
but I have a very,
very dark side to me.
I have no problem
killing someone,
like I know that for a fact.
I would consider myself
one of those monsters
that knows how to cause
great violence.
But it's the matter
of learning and choosing
when to use it
and when not to use it.
Kill or be killed.
A weak man, a weak woman,
a weak human being
in the apocalypse,
you're useless.
I've taken years to prep
my body, mind, and soul,
and my hard earned money
and I've stored it.
People can make fun of me
all they want.
They can say
I'm wasting my time.
They're like [bleep]
that's not gonna happen.
But wake up, look at the world
for what it is,
not how it should be.
No, I shouldn't have to wear
a gun when I go outside
and I go downtown,
but guess what?
It's better to have it
and not need it
than need it and not have it.
Yeah, people, they can talk
[bleep] all they want,
but guess what?
When that time comes,
they're gonna come
running to me
and I'm gonna tell them
to go [bleep] themselves.
[Tree] Oh, yeah. There we go.
Yeah. So this is how to make
a temporary toilet
in the matter of an hour
if you're living off grid.
If you just make a very like
skinny little trench
that you can stand over
and crouch.
[Vibe] I have [bleep] today.
I'm full of [bleep],
so I grabbed a shovel
and some friends.
Yeah, now we all can
[bleep] together.
I mean, I have pooped
with someone else
at this, uh,
a different trench,
but I don't like it.
Sometimes people
try to [bleep] like this
and I don't know
how they do that.
The only time
I ever get a leg workout
is when I have to [bleep]
in a pit like this, you know?
Every time you take a [bleep]
the rule is to bury
your [bleep].
Along with burying it
-[Tree] Yeah.
-you're gonna sprinkle
ash on it
and that's gonna
discourage flies.
[Vibe] Flies, feces,
food trifecta
is what kills people.
And if you don't
bury your [bleep],
guess what lands on it?
-[woman] Flies.
-Flies.
And if you have your food out,
guess what lands on it?
-[Tree] Flies. Oh.
-Flies.
And guess what's
on their little feet?
-[Tree] Poo.
-Poop,
and then guess what happens?
-[Tree] I get sick.
-You get very sick.
[Tree] Oh, my gosh.
The plumbing system
is [bleep],
the flush from our toilet
goes way over there,
far, far away into the ocean
that we don't see.
For me, I just feel
uncomfortable about the idea
of wasting my [bleep].
I'm happy to die knowing
that a population knows
how to build
a temporary toilet.
Big moment.
[woman speaking]
Getting filmed pooping.
[woman speaking]
[laughs]
I was raised in Liverpool
until I was six
and that's when I moved
to Northern Ireland.
I pretty much spent
half of my life
in the hospital
until I was six.
And so,
that just started me off
at a really rough place
[laughs]
where I just felt isolated
from everyone else.
I've always been me,
but I've never been
able to be accepted
for being me, you know?
Even when I was a teenager,
I was messed up.
You know,
I used to have Tourette's.
Um[laughs] My
Both my hands
used to flail all over.
I had so much stress in the
In the way that I was living,
you know?
But as soon
as I started to travel,
my Tourette's disappeared,
you know?
So it's like, it was very
obvious that the way
I was living back then
was really not good for me,
you know?
[Tree grunts]
Just cover it with ashes
so the flies don't get to it.
The truth is,
humans have been domesticated.
We're learning
how to be wild again.
[instrumental music playing]
[Heather] Today is the day
Tyler is getting ready to go.
Yes.
[Heather] Rosie.
She's so sad.
You can't come with,
I'm sorry.
[Heather chuckles]
I'm gonna take a train
to La Plata,
and then I'm gonna be walking
the rest of the way.
From what I've gathered,
The Garden is very much
like anarchist,
antigovernment,
antiestablishment,
and paranoia is a really
big part of that community.
There will definitely
be moments
when I know his patience
will be tested.
My biggest concern
is that somebody else
is gonna push him too far
and he's gonna snap.
And he can be pretty brutal.
[instrumental music playing]
[Tyler] How's it going?
-Tyler.
-[Bodie] Bodie.
-Bodie?
-[Bodie] Yeah.
-Ah, cool. That's awesome.
-[woman] Hi.
-Hi.
-Nice to meet you.
-[Bobby speaking]
-How's it going? Oh.
Good to meet you.
Good to meet you.
-Welcome here.
-What's going on?
-Goat.
-Goat?
-Yeah.
-I love that.
[woman] Profit fox,
we're gonna make
a lot of money.
It's the profit fox.
Get out of here, profit fox.
So far what I've seen,
there's a bunch
of very different
personalities that live here.
[woman speaking]
If I want them to like me
or for me even be voted on
after the 10 days,
I can only do that
if I let my guard down
just a little bit.
[woman] Get yourself a duck.
Oh, you mean, I got Okay.
-Yeah. You gotta catch
your own duck.
-All right.
All right, buddies.
Oh, God, it's [bleep] in here.
Versus just being that
hard-charging, stubborn jerk
that I am sometimes.
What is like your, like,
immediate needs right now?
Builders.
We need to build a lot.
We might be hosting
a hundred people.
-Really?
-Who knows? Who knows?
I'm We need to get
in it tomorrow,
'cause the real deal
is about to start.
[dogs barking]
[Tyler] You're okay.
You're okay.
I'm a good guy. I promise.
I do have some questions
that I want answered.
Where are they getting
their materials from?
How are we gonna
even pull this off?
And is this place a cult?
[suspense music playing]
[soft instrumental
music playing]
[Patrick] In order to start
a new land project,
you need to have first,
a good location.
Second, it's really helpful
if you're not doing it alone.
Some of the first things
that you're gonna want
to establish
on a new land project
is ability to dispose
of waste,
being your, you know,
poop and ability to stay dry,
and cook food, and gather.
In most land projects,
the kitchen is the heart
of the community.
People gather around food.
A lot of appreciation
is generated
through people working
in the kitchen together.
And things to be wary
of is like, uh,
keeping good relations
with your close neighbors
and your local
law enforcement.
I wouldn't suggest going
and trying to be,
like, a rebel,
go in, like, gently
to a new town, new space,
and try to make
a good impression.
[dramatic music playing]
[Patrick] We should probably
give you a rundown
-on chainsaw safety and such.
-[Tyler] Right.
The chainsaw can do this thing
-where it bounces.
-Yeah.
And if you don't have
a good grab here,
it can do damage.
Other than that,
just don't do anything stupid.
I'm not a master carpenter.
I'm not gonna be able
to build a house.
But if you want me
to redneck some things,
like an outhouse,
you know, with these guys
I can do that.
[chainsaw revving]
[Patrick]
Tyler is enthusiastic.
He's a big strong guy.
So he's nice to have around
for the heavy lifting,
for sure,
saves our backs. [laughs]
[Tyler] So, I heard you
mentioned something earlier
that you've been on The Garden
for 15, 16 years,
but you said you've been
doing this your whole life.
What exactly does it mean,
like
I was raised in the woods.
We camped a lot.
And we traveled and we went
to Rainbow Gatherings,
a gathering of people
in the woods,
practicing living
a different way.
[people chanting]
And the original intention
of Rainbow
was to change the world
by living different.
My family got involved
My parents met in, like,
'83 at a Rainbow Gathering,
and then going
from Rainbow Gathering
to Rainbow Gathering.
There's also, like,
a lot of drama
that seems like
that's associated with.
It's just people gathered
in the woods.
There's nothing more natural.
And if you put humans
in the woods together,
then what you get
is a Rainbow Gathering.
[laughs] I mean
Rainbow Collective,
they've been called a cult,
but maybe it's a bunch
of hippies worshiping trees.
Like that's weird,
but harmless.
[people singing]
In this group,
we're looking for people
that want to do this
for future generations,
and then for each other.
From everything
that I've kind of seen,
Patrick truly
is very, very humble.
He wants a message
to get put out,
but he doesn't wanna be
the face.
And that's where I think
Tree and Julia come in.
When I first heard
about The Garden,
it was this, uh, lady
that was in The Garden
that was
-Mmm-hmm.
-that had a killer cat.
Mmm-hmm.
You know You know
what I'm talking about?
And she had to eat it
or she like ate it
-and wore its skin
or something.
-Mmm, mmm.
What was
What was that actual story?
Um, I didn't really
I was hoping we were leaving
all that in the past.
So online,
they talk about someone
that was on the property,
like, killed and ate a cat
and which is weird.
Well, let's see.
They skinned the cat,
killed it, and ate it.
[woman speaking]
No. The hide of the cat,
it, like, was the perfect size
to fit right around my head.
It's It came out
really nice.
This commune is [bleep] scary.
We're just trying to tell
a new story, you know?
-Okay. I got you.
-And that story
was really highlighted
for so long.
But, you know,
it's been like years now.
We're not gonna kill your pet,
okay?
We're not killing pets here.
That's not what's happening.
This was a feral wild cat
that killed 30
of our chickens.
A [bleep] animal kills your
The animals,
you kill that animal.
After the cat was dead,
it was skinned.
We're gonna what?
Go to Walmart and buy a hat?
Um, and so obviously,
the cat has protein.
Um, so people tried to cook it
and they took
a few bites of it
and they found it disgusting.
We've been so separated
from our food source
that we don't understand
when you kill something,
you eat it.
It feels like
there's so much more
to what we're doing here
than that,
-that I just wanna like
-Right.
uh, tell that story,
you know?
So is it Is it pretty
common to have some conflict?
[Tree] With Tyler, there
already started to be this,
like, investigative nature
about how we were living
and that's really scary.
[Narayah] Tyler is
the most recent addition.
He came
at a very interesting time,
kind of an opportunity for him
to be a new target per se.
Hey, Tyler, are you in there?
[zipping]
[Narayah] I don't think
I've properly introduced
myself yet.
I'm Narayah.
Oh. Hey.
-[Narayah] Nice to meet you.
-Mariah?
[Narayah] Narayah.
So I just wanted
to check in and
[Tyler] Yeah, yeah.
Come on in.
[Narayah] All right.
[Tyler] Narayah is a very
interesting individual.
The best way
I can describe her is
a hippie Barbie doll with
perfect teeth and fake boobs.
I don't want this to, like,
hinder your experience.
So like,
please just understand
that this has just been mine
and where I'm coming from.
This group of people
are looking at you
and, like, questioning
if you were a cop.
Things that you have said,
like, they don't like that.
I haven't had any problems.
Like that was
the warmest welcome
that I could possibly
ask for. Like
[Narayah] Yeah.
Well, you just got here.
It's either, like,
you diminish
and minimize yourself
to the point where
they're comfortable with it,
and then you can stay.
But if you keep staying strong
and standing your ground
and speaking up,
the harder
they're gonna like--
I don't know.
This is only day one.
I'm just trying to take it
take it day by day right now.
And, uh, you actually
just gave me
a lot to think about actually.
Yeah. Definitely more anxious
than relaxed now.
[serene music playing]
[Tree] Like, oh, my God.
Like, she's like making
a stupid video.
Like, she puts this whole
project in danger.
She needs to go.
It's like, we're trying
to create community here
and it's really difficult
to do that
with people who you can't
really trust their motives.
I don't know
who I can trust anymore.
It's just this whole process
is so difficult.
You know, I do I feel like
I'm gonna get killed.
Tree, he's really good
at putting on a face
for the camera.
This, like, happy-go-lucky,
fun guy,
but I also see
a lot of ego.
[Tree] Narayah, you're here
making a video, like
And you're recording this.
Cool. Congratulations.
[Narayah] Why are you touching
my stuff?
[Tree speaking]
[Narayah speaking]
[scuffling]
-[Tyler] I can't.
-[Narayah speaking]
But why would he take your
Why would he take your phone?
[Tree] You're sitting there
making a video
and I feel in danger
about you being on the land.
I just have to take things
in my own hands now.
[Narayah speaking]
[Patrick] For what?
[Narayah speaking]
You're gonna call 911
and be like
[Narayah speaking]
All the things.
-[Tyler] He grabbed her phone.
-[Patrick]
I'm out of the loop.
[Tree] You don't understand,
like, how she's trying
to attack us right now.
[Tyler] What do you do
as, like, a community
when, like, that happens?
That's normal.
[Tree] She's calling the cops.
We gotta do something.
Vibe, Vibe, stop.
Vibe, Vibe, stop it.
Vibe. Please stop.
Please stop.
[Tree] And then here comes
the peacemakers.
[laughs]
[Narayah] When you get
a group of people
working together with control
and gaslighting
manipulation
All of the things are pointing
to cult.
-[police speaking]
-[Narayah] Yes.
[police speaking]
[man 2] Are people ready?
[Patrick speaking]
People are misled,
mass manipulated.
People have been tricked
into living lives that don't
serve them or each other
or their family.
Their energy
is being siphoned off
to serve the machine.
And the reality is becoming
more and more clear.
Society needs
to be burnt to ashes.
[suspenseful music playing]
My goal is nothing less than
to change the entire world.
[woman] We're open to anybody
at any time.
[man] It's not a safe place.
[Tree] We're here creating
something new.
We're gonna burn it.
[man] If I don't conform,
I am outcasted.
[woman 1] There's a reason
they're off the grid.
[woman 2] For the love
of all humanity.
[woman 3]
The Garden is a cult.
You are putting
us all in danger.
Stop filming.
[woman] We are going
to tell our true story.
[dramatic music playing]
[birds chirping]
[Tyler] I come up here
on this property
to get my mental health
in check.
Like I just unplug,
free of worries,
free of paying bills.
You're free to do whatever
the [bleep] that you want.
The beginning of me prepping
was when I was
in my military career.
That's when I first saw
the ugliness of humanity.
How do I prepare
for the worst case scenario?
Because when it comes
to prepping as Americans,
we don't know [bleep].
[gunshot]
[producer speaking]
Right in the face.
So as a kid,
I was constantly bullied.
I was a tiny scrawny kid.
I was poor.
I was the weird kid.
And then eventually
I kind of fought back.
And from that point on,
I was not to be [bleep] with.
All right, so I am looking
This is his heart.
That doesn't taste good.
As I was looking
stuff up online,
I came across a very
interesting young Irishman
called Tree is Alive.
His name is Tree.
Very interesting character,
and he's on this commune
called The Garden.
I'm gonna give you a tour
of The Garden.
Lunch is being made.
Chickens are chilling
under the tree.
Homeboy over here
chopping wood.
[Tyler]
They don't like society.
They just wanna be left alone
on a piece of land.
This is how you turn a tree
that would hardly fruit at all
to one that would fruit
for up to a hundred years
by doing some
Frankenstein [bleep].
This is like post-apocalyptic
wonderland.
What we're doing here
is a little bit unusual
for most people
in their lives.
You know, like right now,
I am [bleep] into a pit.
You ready for that?
[bleep] yeah.
[upbeat music playing]
So here we are.
We're at The Garden.
It's 21 and a half acres.
[gunshots]
[Julia speaking]
[laughs] It sounds
like fireworks, right?
It's like a celebration.
So this is the greenhouse.
It needs a lot of work.
This is our outdoor kitchen.
[Vibe] This is our five pot
fire pit.
The main pit where we cook
most of our food.
Rocket stoves, that boils
water in about two minutes.
[Tree] That's the shower.
This black wire holds
the water
and then the sun beats down
onto it, heating it up.
-[producer speaking]
-No. I hardly shower.
I shower like once a month.
Like I don't
I'm in the woods, you know,
like who am I showering for?
-Oh, the TV? No.
-[Julia] Yeah.
This is the schoolhouse.
To our left is our library.
This is the sauna.
We have a pool table.
These are our chickens.
And we also have like
14 roosters right now.
I make a great rooster
noodle stew.
[producer] Oh.
Right behind me
is my favorite spot
on this whole land.
It's the compost toilet.
Swiff it in a bit.
What do you smell?
You smell a little mustiness,
but it's not much
because we have so much air
getting to [bleep].
And once you finish,
you put this sawdust on it,
that's gonna allow it
to compost.
This is probably a few months
worth of [bleep] yeah.
It smells sweet.
The type of person
that flourishes
within this community
is a messy person
because we are messy.
Every sort of person
has shown up at The Garden,
from city folk, to redneck,
to hippie, to artist.
[Julia] Some people, for them
it's a family they never had.
Some people look at
the state of the world, like,
I need to do
something about this.
I grew up suburban,
you know, high school prom.
And then I discovered that,
like, being in nature
in a really, like, raw form
is what made me
feel most alive.
Then I'll go
and I'll see my friends
and they'll, like,
have a reaction to, like,
a mouse or a spider,
and I'm like,
oh, right, like you don't live
in the woods.
Rewilding, we call it.
What it feels like
to be like a wild animal
in line with the earth
and trying to connect
with that wildness
as much as possible.
-[all cheering]
-[exclaims]
[man] Yes. Yes.
So as I'm peeing here,
it's collecting my nitrogen
and storing it,
and then later on,
it's gonna be spread
on The Garden
and feed the plants.
Maybe we're not just wasting
our [bleep], you know,
maybe we can use it to help
bring more life
into this space, you know,
so our pee is sacred.
It's something
that can actually free us.
Well, of course there's gonna
be a collapse in society.
There always is. There's no
endless civilization
that just keeps on going.
People are wildly unprepared,
even in the most basic skills.
[Tree] But that's why
we have The Garden.
We are the aftermath
of the destruction of society.
[producer speaking]
Yeah. Right now,
it's in Patrick's name.
[Patrick]
We don't wanna hit too hard.
We do wanna be kind of
sensitive of the older tree.
There we go.
There we go.
-Woo.
-Cool.
Fifteen years ago,
me and my friend Tim,
we started dreaming about,
I don't know,
living more free.
You know, we both
hitchhiked and traveled
and we found this area
and built a toolshed,
built a outhouse,
grow our own food,
collect our own water,
use our own fuel sources.
And ever since then,
it's been like
kind of growing exponentially.
We're gonna burn Saturn
because Saturn represents
all the evil people that are
trying to control the world,
and we're gonna burn it.
[producer speaking]
Yeah. No, not really.
The earth's my home.
We're leaving The Garden.
We're gonna get new land.
We're gonna go to Missouri.
[Tyler] We have this new land
that they have
out in Missouri.
And they said that they're
They need all the help
they can get
to build another commune.
This spot in Missouri,
it's been part of the plan
to buy other pieces of land.
[Julia] It's kind of like
the mission of The Garden.
The dream is that we have
spaces like this
all over the country.
So this is kind of like
the central starting hub.
This is your one chance
to really utilize your skills.
Do you have what it takes to
build an off-grid community?
Some of the issues
with being open door
is that you don't always get
the right person.
This commune,
everyone's welcome.
I used to have ultimate trust
in everyone.
That's why I invited
the whole [bleep] world
to come to The Garden.
I'm here at The Garden
and let's go see
what everyone's up to.
Tree was inviting the whole
world to The Garden
just radically, like,
"come on down,
here's the address."
Another TikToker
has just arrived.
Garden keeps growing. [laughs]
We all thought
it was so funny.
We were, like, "yeah, sure,
invite the whole world."
We were going viral
and people were loving it.
[Tree]
What you think of The Garden?
-I'm in love.
-Dream, I love it here.
I wanna take care
of the chickens.
-[Tee] Woo!
-[laughter]
They were, like, oh, my gosh,
this is an option?
And they wanted to be a part
of it, but something switched.
The Garden is most
likely a cult.
This is part three
on The Garden
and why I think it's a cult.
It's not a safe place.
They attacked everything
about it.
[woman] They recruit people
off of TikTok.
This is a cult.
And the bootleg
Ed Sheeran guy, like,
what is that?
Hundreds of people saying that
they were gonna murder me.
They forced me
into this car at gunpoint.
It is a [bleep] cult.
FBI was called on me.
[Tree] Do we live in a cult?
Do we?
-Carl, do we live in a cult?
-No.
[woman] Like, you even have
to answer the question
whether or not you're a cult.
That's suspect.
Cult, cult, cult, cult, cult.
I've been, like,
so flabbergasted by the fact
that people think
this is a cult.
Like, you The
You are born into a cult.
Society right now is a cult.
You are told how to live.
That's a cult.
You have leaders.
That's a cult.
A cult is a job.
It's your work.
And we don't even see it.
Like how It's so wild.
It's so wild.
I'm not pre
Maybe I'm preaching.
I don't know.
I [bleep] preach sometimes,
but I'm just trying to talk.
[Julia] Waves of threats.
So we closed the doors
for the last three years,
but it's like, you know,
how are you gonna
try to get the word out
without trying to get
the word out, you know?
So for the first time ever,
we are allowing
a film crew to document
our whole community lifestyle.
We're not playing it safe.
We are screaming
from the rooftops
because, like, the whole world
situation is not safe.
[Tyler] If this isn't a cult,
but they just
are just weird people.
I'm all for that.
But I'm not afraid
to dig around a little bit
to find out, is this a cult?
Who's the leader?
Who runs the show?
And why are you guys
doing this?
And they're gonna [bleep]
answer that.
[tense music playing]
This is basically
the deconstructed sanctuary.
Things that I brought
to share with the community.
Starting a new land project,
you need lots of tools.
I don't even know
what some of this stuff is.
Then I have these.
These are my favorite.
You can use it for anything
that you feel
called to use it for.
I owned a cosmetology business
for a little over six years.
I decided to let my business
go because
Um
the universe told me to.
I mean, I know people
probably don't get their hair
done often,
so I can do haircuts for them.
I brought the sink to do
scalp massages for people.
This is for the shampoo chair.
Biodegradable glitter.
We're gonna do some Brazilians
for tick prevention
is what I was thinking.
We'll see who's gonna
be down for that.
It's just what I can bring.
This is what I bring
as an offering
to share with community.
It's gonna be fun.
I came on for the Missouri
project and
there's still been moments
that I feel like an outsider.
[Tree] Narayah just wants
to follow me
as we do the tour.
It's like so weird.
If anyone was following,
it would make me feel
uncomfortable.
Narayah is a newcomer.
And I don't know
what she was doing.
Yeah.
Can you just leave me alone?
Like, let me, like
I don't wanna be followed.
She's been filming
a lot of things
where people
didn't know about.
-[Narayah] So, what you doing?
-[man] Uh
[woman] Describe what this
experience was like for you.
[Narayah] We're getting
boo-boos fixed.
I wanted to integrate myself
into The Garden community.
And I like to document things.
So I started filming
to get to know everyone.
Good morning.
It's been this, like,
suspicious,
like, energy put on me.
[Tree] Wow.
[Julia speaking]
[Tree] Yeah.
Straight away she's,
like, causing a problem.
-Like, it's like--
-[Julia] Just don't,
just don't, just don't.
[woman] A lot of people
don't like us.
-[man] Yeah.
-Because of the way
the last time
we got publicity went.
I think it's a little scary
having people film us.
It's been really scary
for everybody thinking about,
like, putting our whole life
on blast.
You know, especially,
I mean, we've already gone
through it.
[Tree] Super dangerous,
though, I tried.
The internet hated me.
If this doesn't go well
or whatever,
the stakes are really high.
It's kind of scary.
Maybe after TikTok to, like,
expose this lifestyle
because we could become
under ridicule.
But the situation
in the world is pretty dire.
To us, the importance
of getting the message out
is, like, worth the risk,
you know?
We have crop failures
all around the world.
Flooding and drought,
political upheaval.
People in the world
are losing hope
and things getting better
because things seem
so [bleep] bad.
So there's not much reason
not to do this.
[producer] Are you the leader
of The Garden?
No. I am not the leader
of The Garden.
That role is shared.
A good portion of the group
considers themselves
anarchists.
Anarchy doesn't mean no rules,
it means
no hierarchal structure.
That self-governance
is possible.
The power is in our hands.
We're the workers.
We are the grease
that greases the wheels
and we can grease
our own wheels.
We can put our energy
and our resources into us.
And there's probably
still gonna be people
that hate on us for it but,
what else are we gonna do?
Like do it in secret?
There are other people
just dying to get off the grid
and they don't know
how to do it.
I did it.
I left everything behind
to be here with you guys.
It's like
we're all in this together.
[suspenseful music playing]
My prediction is by 2030,
we'll see significant
collapse of society.
Enough collapse that it'll be
apparent to the masses.
With a changing world,
no one space
is necessarily gonna be safe.
Things might go down
in Tennessee
and the community
might not be safe there.
Missouri is a great place
to have a new spot
because it's in line
with our existing routes.
We have networked
up into South Dakota.
This is a big step
in actually developing
a network
of communities
that we can flow between.
[producer speaking]
Whoa.
But what is a cult?
[laughs]
[men howling]
[singing in foreign language]
[Tree] Yeah. Yeah.
[Tree] Yeah.
[Shine] Uh-huh. Yeah.
You know, since like
the whole TikTok drama,
I've been insanely paranoid.
The CIA, the FBI
are definitely on us
and I don't even
They could even be
one of you guys.
They could be
one of these newcomers.
They're already probably here.
[Patrick] Our security system
is our intuitions
about people.
[Julia] Uh-huh.
[Tree] Yeah.
[instrumental music playing]
[Tyler] The military
has given me
a lot of physical pain,
emotional pain, mental pain,
anxiety, PTSD.
I need to have
a strict routine.
I cold plunge,
I eat right and I exercise,
because otherwise
my mind will melt.
When I leave for The Garden,
number one that sticks
in my mind is my wife.
Let's go. Come on.
That is very,
very hard for me,
because number one,
like, I'm her guard dog
and I know that
she doesn't necessarily
feel safe when I'm not there.
She's my partner in life.
She is literally
everything to me.
And that's why
it's really hard
when I leave her.
It's gonna be really hard.
Do you have any concerns
about me going to The Garden?
I mean don't put
your [bleep] in people.
Do you wanna have sex
with anybody else
while you're out there?
That would not be
and that would not be okay.
-No.
-No.
I don't care if you're naked.
I'm very comfortable
being naked
and my wife is very
comfortable being naked.
It's that primal state
of being.
We've talked about
like bringing in a third, uh,
but it would be a female
because I can't necessarily
provide
what a female
can provide to her.
[chuckles]
See?
Um
[producer speaking]
A vagina?
He feels very heterosexual
and I feel very much
like I'm a bisexual.
And he was very understanding
from the get-go.
He was like, "Well,
if that's ever something
that you need,
you know, let's talk about it.
Like let's
Talk to me about it."
-But I get to participate.
-Figure it out.
-That was the one rule.
-Because he's
a heterosexual male.
Just saying.
I have begged and begged
and begged Heather
to come on this adventure
with me.
So that's the ultimate goal.
But she told me, you know,
there's like no way.
[Heather] As like a culture,
we're obsessed
with the end of the world.
The Mayans and the Incas,
for god's sake,
predicted the end
of the world.
I don't know if it's gonna be
in this lifetime or not.
I just know like
I'm gonna enjoy the [bleep]
out of electricity
and hot water while I can.
Are you gonna be
able to like call me
and stuff while you're there?
Uh, I really hope so.
No. I mean, I'm gonna be
really worried
about you if I don't hear
that you're okay.
-Just come home to me.
-I know. I will.
But if [bleep] gets crazy
just like,
think about like coming home
and coming home safe.
I'll come home.
[instrumental music playing]
[Patrick] Today is moving day.
We're leaving The Garden
to go to the new space
in Missouri.
There's gonna be
a big caravan.
It's a lot like herding cats,
packing wood and tools
and plants,
things we need
to start a new space.
[Julia] Are we doing
the normal thing?
[Tree] Yeah,
it was more like this,
is like, seems like
-out of
It just seems like
-Uh-huh.
I look like a crazy man,
you know?
Do you wanna keep going
with the mullet thing?
Oh, 100%.
-Okay.
-I'm a mullet guy now.
It's crazy, you know, um,
last time this one year, like,
we cut my hair here
and then all of a sudden,
we found a bird's nest
with ginger hair in it.
[producer speaking]
We're both traveling
in Europe,
uh, and we both wanted
to go to
We were both like
kind of on this path
of checking out
intentional communities.
We found a rideshare
on Facebook
to go to this Rainbow
in northern Sweden.
And then we traveled
in a car together
for four days
up to the Rainbow Gathering
in the Arctic Circle.
It was gorgeous.
Just being in nature
with people swimming,
like, in the rivers
and eating fruits
and cooking over fire.
And it was like the most alive
and like the highest
I ever felt.
When I first met Julia,
I thought she was
maybe too clean for me,
um, too bougie
a little bit, too hot.
Yeah, that's for sure.
But now we're married.
[Julia] My parents
have really embraced Tree.
I think for a while
it was hard
because he doesn't conform,
you know, and it
It's kind of inspired me
to not conform.
[Tree] Julia's role
is the smarts for sure,
like she went to university.
She does a lot
of the paperwork,
a lot of the organization
kind of stuff,
a lot of the background work.
Keeping everything afloat
and making it legit.
I'm bringing you bricks, Tom.
[man] I'm tired, but
[indistinct chatter]
[Julia speaking]
[Narayah speaking]
-[woman 1] Thanks.
-[woman 2] Okay.
Anybody know
how this got in here?
[man speaking]
Oh, Amish auction?
[Narayah]
Nope, I've had it since then.
Why is it in here?
This is a notebook that
I carry with me regularly.
[Tree] Yeah. Narayah,
I don't know, stuff can
-Stuff just ends up--
-No, a personal item
-that I keep
in my travel trailer.
-[woman] Might wanna--
[Tree] Oh, yeah.
You know what?
That was probably me
because I love going through
-everyone's personal buses
and taking out books.
-[Narayah] I'm just saying.
I don't know who took it,
but it just seems like
one big manipulation.
[Tree] That book
has been in there for days.
[Patrick]
Everybody's read it, right?
[laughter]
I'm pretty sure
it was left there,
um, from whenever we went
to the Amish market.
This a hundred percent
I did not leave in there.
I'm sorry.
That must feel really scary.
[Tree] It seemed to me like
she had just left it in there
and forgot about it.
[laughs]
It's finally happened, guys.
We have a film crew.
We're lined up
and we're about to head
to a new piece of property
and start from scratch.
Let's go.
We're ready.
-[man] Ready.
-All right. Let's go.
Woo!
Let's go.
[upbeat music playing]
[singer] Fire at will ♪
Fire at will ♪
Fire at will ♪
Fire at will ♪
[Patrick] All the power
of the world is in our hands
and we'll change everything.
[singer] Bad reputation
No hesitation ♪
Let's start messin' up
You're not one of us ♪
[Heather]
I was Googling your Garden.
This guy right here, I tried
to like run a background
report on him
and nothing came up,
like nothing.
That's not normal,
especially if he
is an immigrant from Britain.
Because I'm a private
investigator,
I have access
to search databases.
Run this guy,
uh, Patrick Martion.
[Heather] When you look up
this guy's name,
it's like connected
to the Rainbow Collective.
Rainbow Family.
Holy crap, 191 arrests.
Narcotics distribution,
interference
with federal officers.
[Tyler] This Patrick guy,
his name is connected
to the Rainbow Collective.
There's a lot of weird [bleep]
on the internet
about the Rainbow Collective
and that seems very cultish.
The Rainbow Family has been
on like the FBI watches
for a really long time.
[Patrick]
So I was born into Rainbow.
Rainbow was family.
It was really awesome.
It was really wholesome.
It was just coming together
in the woods
and building a village.
Quadruple stabbing
and pit bull attack.
But so far, that's the only
like violent thing we've seen.
-That's a lot.
-Fairly harmless.
Four people got stabbed.
[man] They had their guns out,
their tasers.
[man] I was blocking hippies
from attacking you.
[producer speaking]
Sure.
[producer speaking]
[Patrick] Communal living
has been demonized
by the media
and the government.
-[man] NYPD.
-[woman] Yes, sir.
Everybody knows
about Jonestown or Ruby Ridge
but they don't focus on
when it does work.
Instead they focus
on when it went ugly.
Every homicide case I have,
it doesn't just happen,
like 90% of crime
is not random.
It's multiple people
doing a lot of stupid [bleep]
for a long time.
[Tree] Come on.
[woman 1] Come on, here we go!
[all cheering]
[man 1] Woo!
[man 2] Yeah, buddy. Woo!
[woman 2]
We made it to the new land.
[woman] The Garden
was born out of Rainbow.
I'm really, like,
I'm really nervous.
I'm really nervous
about you going out there.
[suspense music playing]
[instrumental music playing]
This property is 55 acres
of pure potential.
[Tree] Isn't it insane,
the potential of this land?
It's [bleep] wild.
In just 24 hours,
we got benches,
we got a fire pit,
we got a stove, we got a sink.
[Julia] Right.
Our first council
on this new land.
-Woo-hoo.
-[woman] Woo-hoo.
[Julia]
First topic we have is water.
Um, I realized quickly
this morning
that we only have like
our personal water.
[Julia] But we do need
drinking water.
But the pond, from the pond.
If anyone wants to use muscle,
we can go to the pond
and get the buckets
and get them
and bring them over here.
Any other water plans
can be discussed
with the water committee,
which is Jag, Bodie,
Soul, and Tree.
So the next topic
is newcomers,
our visitor process.
Six or seven people
that reached out online,
that wanna come help us
with this new land project.
[woman] Are they all
coming at once, together?
[Julia] No, I think
it's kind of spread out
around the next month.
My thinking
is there'll be like
a period of time for a visitor
that they're a visitor.
I don't know what
time period that is.
[man speaking]
-[woman] Yeah.
-[Julia] Yeah. Okay.
[man speaking]
If the group feels
uncomfortable,
then the group can decide
that visitor is not
the best fit at this time.
Here at The Garden,
a visitation process
is kind of like
a trial period.
Someone could come
and visit for 10 days
and then after 10 days,
they could propose
to stay longer
and then that proposal
would be either accepted
or denied in a council.
[Julia] Okay.
So 10 seconds of silence
to consent on accepting
visitors for 10 days total.
[woman] Woo-hoo.
[Julia] Bring them in.
[people applauding]
[instrumental music playing]
[metal creaking]
[thuds]
[Tyler] I am putting
the final touches
on my bug-out bag.
Tomorrow morning
is when I leave.
This is my prepping area.
Things I like to keep orderly
and the things
that I need the most.
And this is my bug-out bag.
This is a tarp,
preventing hypothermia,
staying dry.
Cordage,
you can make traps with it.
The machete,
it's made to hack.
This helps making
your base camp way easier.
This is a quick way
to defend yourself.
I'm not afraid to do violence
to someone.
I have a problem with anger.
I may not seem like that,
but I have a very,
very dark side to me.
I have no problem
killing someone,
like I know that for a fact.
I would consider myself
one of those monsters
that knows how to cause
great violence.
But it's the matter
of learning and choosing
when to use it
and when not to use it.
Kill or be killed.
A weak man, a weak woman,
a weak human being
in the apocalypse,
you're useless.
I've taken years to prep
my body, mind, and soul,
and my hard earned money
and I've stored it.
People can make fun of me
all they want.
They can say
I'm wasting my time.
They're like [bleep]
that's not gonna happen.
But wake up, look at the world
for what it is,
not how it should be.
No, I shouldn't have to wear
a gun when I go outside
and I go downtown,
but guess what?
It's better to have it
and not need it
than need it and not have it.
Yeah, people, they can talk
[bleep] all they want,
but guess what?
When that time comes,
they're gonna come
running to me
and I'm gonna tell them
to go [bleep] themselves.
[Tree] Oh, yeah. There we go.
Yeah. So this is how to make
a temporary toilet
in the matter of an hour
if you're living off grid.
If you just make a very like
skinny little trench
that you can stand over
and crouch.
[Vibe] I have [bleep] today.
I'm full of [bleep],
so I grabbed a shovel
and some friends.
Yeah, now we all can
[bleep] together.
I mean, I have pooped
with someone else
at this, uh,
a different trench,
but I don't like it.
Sometimes people
try to [bleep] like this
and I don't know
how they do that.
The only time
I ever get a leg workout
is when I have to [bleep]
in a pit like this, you know?
Every time you take a [bleep]
the rule is to bury
your [bleep].
Along with burying it
-[Tree] Yeah.
-you're gonna sprinkle
ash on it
and that's gonna
discourage flies.
[Vibe] Flies, feces,
food trifecta
is what kills people.
And if you don't
bury your [bleep],
guess what lands on it?
-[woman] Flies.
-Flies.
And if you have your food out,
guess what lands on it?
-[Tree] Flies. Oh.
-Flies.
And guess what's
on their little feet?
-[Tree] Poo.
-Poop,
and then guess what happens?
-[Tree] I get sick.
-You get very sick.
[Tree] Oh, my gosh.
The plumbing system
is [bleep],
the flush from our toilet
goes way over there,
far, far away into the ocean
that we don't see.
For me, I just feel
uncomfortable about the idea
of wasting my [bleep].
I'm happy to die knowing
that a population knows
how to build
a temporary toilet.
Big moment.
[woman speaking]
Getting filmed pooping.
[woman speaking]
[laughs]
I was raised in Liverpool
until I was six
and that's when I moved
to Northern Ireland.
I pretty much spent
half of my life
in the hospital
until I was six.
And so,
that just started me off
at a really rough place
[laughs]
where I just felt isolated
from everyone else.
I've always been me,
but I've never been
able to be accepted
for being me, you know?
Even when I was a teenager,
I was messed up.
You know,
I used to have Tourette's.
Um[laughs] My
Both my hands
used to flail all over.
I had so much stress in the
In the way that I was living,
you know?
But as soon
as I started to travel,
my Tourette's disappeared,
you know?
So it's like, it was very
obvious that the way
I was living back then
was really not good for me,
you know?
[Tree grunts]
Just cover it with ashes
so the flies don't get to it.
The truth is,
humans have been domesticated.
We're learning
how to be wild again.
[instrumental music playing]
[Heather] Today is the day
Tyler is getting ready to go.
Yes.
[Heather] Rosie.
She's so sad.
You can't come with,
I'm sorry.
[Heather chuckles]
I'm gonna take a train
to La Plata,
and then I'm gonna be walking
the rest of the way.
From what I've gathered,
The Garden is very much
like anarchist,
antigovernment,
antiestablishment,
and paranoia is a really
big part of that community.
There will definitely
be moments
when I know his patience
will be tested.
My biggest concern
is that somebody else
is gonna push him too far
and he's gonna snap.
And he can be pretty brutal.
[instrumental music playing]
[Tyler] How's it going?
-Tyler.
-[Bodie] Bodie.
-Bodie?
-[Bodie] Yeah.
-Ah, cool. That's awesome.
-[woman] Hi.
-Hi.
-Nice to meet you.
-[Bobby speaking]
-How's it going? Oh.
Good to meet you.
Good to meet you.
-Welcome here.
-What's going on?
-Goat.
-Goat?
-Yeah.
-I love that.
[woman] Profit fox,
we're gonna make
a lot of money.
It's the profit fox.
Get out of here, profit fox.
So far what I've seen,
there's a bunch
of very different
personalities that live here.
[woman speaking]
If I want them to like me
or for me even be voted on
after the 10 days,
I can only do that
if I let my guard down
just a little bit.
[woman] Get yourself a duck.
Oh, you mean, I got Okay.
-Yeah. You gotta catch
your own duck.
-All right.
All right, buddies.
Oh, God, it's [bleep] in here.
Versus just being that
hard-charging, stubborn jerk
that I am sometimes.
What is like your, like,
immediate needs right now?
Builders.
We need to build a lot.
We might be hosting
a hundred people.
-Really?
-Who knows? Who knows?
I'm We need to get
in it tomorrow,
'cause the real deal
is about to start.
[dogs barking]
[Tyler] You're okay.
You're okay.
I'm a good guy. I promise.
I do have some questions
that I want answered.
Where are they getting
their materials from?
How are we gonna
even pull this off?
And is this place a cult?
[suspense music playing]
[soft instrumental
music playing]
[Patrick] In order to start
a new land project,
you need to have first,
a good location.
Second, it's really helpful
if you're not doing it alone.
Some of the first things
that you're gonna want
to establish
on a new land project
is ability to dispose
of waste,
being your, you know,
poop and ability to stay dry,
and cook food, and gather.
In most land projects,
the kitchen is the heart
of the community.
People gather around food.
A lot of appreciation
is generated
through people working
in the kitchen together.
And things to be wary
of is like, uh,
keeping good relations
with your close neighbors
and your local
law enforcement.
I wouldn't suggest going
and trying to be,
like, a rebel,
go in, like, gently
to a new town, new space,
and try to make
a good impression.
[dramatic music playing]
[Patrick] We should probably
give you a rundown
-on chainsaw safety and such.
-[Tyler] Right.
The chainsaw can do this thing
-where it bounces.
-Yeah.
And if you don't have
a good grab here,
it can do damage.
Other than that,
just don't do anything stupid.
I'm not a master carpenter.
I'm not gonna be able
to build a house.
But if you want me
to redneck some things,
like an outhouse,
you know, with these guys
I can do that.
[chainsaw revving]
[Patrick]
Tyler is enthusiastic.
He's a big strong guy.
So he's nice to have around
for the heavy lifting,
for sure,
saves our backs. [laughs]
[Tyler] So, I heard you
mentioned something earlier
that you've been on The Garden
for 15, 16 years,
but you said you've been
doing this your whole life.
What exactly does it mean,
like
I was raised in the woods.
We camped a lot.
And we traveled and we went
to Rainbow Gatherings,
a gathering of people
in the woods,
practicing living
a different way.
[people chanting]
And the original intention
of Rainbow
was to change the world
by living different.
My family got involved
My parents met in, like,
'83 at a Rainbow Gathering,
and then going
from Rainbow Gathering
to Rainbow Gathering.
There's also, like,
a lot of drama
that seems like
that's associated with.
It's just people gathered
in the woods.
There's nothing more natural.
And if you put humans
in the woods together,
then what you get
is a Rainbow Gathering.
[laughs] I mean
Rainbow Collective,
they've been called a cult,
but maybe it's a bunch
of hippies worshiping trees.
Like that's weird,
but harmless.
[people singing]
In this group,
we're looking for people
that want to do this
for future generations,
and then for each other.
From everything
that I've kind of seen,
Patrick truly
is very, very humble.
He wants a message
to get put out,
but he doesn't wanna be
the face.
And that's where I think
Tree and Julia come in.
When I first heard
about The Garden,
it was this, uh, lady
that was in The Garden
that was
-Mmm-hmm.
-that had a killer cat.
Mmm-hmm.
You know You know
what I'm talking about?
And she had to eat it
or she like ate it
-and wore its skin
or something.
-Mmm, mmm.
What was
What was that actual story?
Um, I didn't really
I was hoping we were leaving
all that in the past.
So online,
they talk about someone
that was on the property,
like, killed and ate a cat
and which is weird.
Well, let's see.
They skinned the cat,
killed it, and ate it.
[woman speaking]
No. The hide of the cat,
it, like, was the perfect size
to fit right around my head.
It's It came out
really nice.
This commune is [bleep] scary.
We're just trying to tell
a new story, you know?
-Okay. I got you.
-And that story
was really highlighted
for so long.
But, you know,
it's been like years now.
We're not gonna kill your pet,
okay?
We're not killing pets here.
That's not what's happening.
This was a feral wild cat
that killed 30
of our chickens.
A [bleep] animal kills your
The animals,
you kill that animal.
After the cat was dead,
it was skinned.
We're gonna what?
Go to Walmart and buy a hat?
Um, and so obviously,
the cat has protein.
Um, so people tried to cook it
and they took
a few bites of it
and they found it disgusting.
We've been so separated
from our food source
that we don't understand
when you kill something,
you eat it.
It feels like
there's so much more
to what we're doing here
than that,
-that I just wanna like
-Right.
uh, tell that story,
you know?
So is it Is it pretty
common to have some conflict?
[Tree] With Tyler, there
already started to be this,
like, investigative nature
about how we were living
and that's really scary.
[Narayah] Tyler is
the most recent addition.
He came
at a very interesting time,
kind of an opportunity for him
to be a new target per se.
Hey, Tyler, are you in there?
[zipping]
[Narayah] I don't think
I've properly introduced
myself yet.
I'm Narayah.
Oh. Hey.
-[Narayah] Nice to meet you.
-Mariah?
[Narayah] Narayah.
So I just wanted
to check in and
[Tyler] Yeah, yeah.
Come on in.
[Narayah] All right.
[Tyler] Narayah is a very
interesting individual.
The best way
I can describe her is
a hippie Barbie doll with
perfect teeth and fake boobs.
I don't want this to, like,
hinder your experience.
So like,
please just understand
that this has just been mine
and where I'm coming from.
This group of people
are looking at you
and, like, questioning
if you were a cop.
Things that you have said,
like, they don't like that.
I haven't had any problems.
Like that was
the warmest welcome
that I could possibly
ask for. Like
[Narayah] Yeah.
Well, you just got here.
It's either, like,
you diminish
and minimize yourself
to the point where
they're comfortable with it,
and then you can stay.
But if you keep staying strong
and standing your ground
and speaking up,
the harder
they're gonna like--
I don't know.
This is only day one.
I'm just trying to take it
take it day by day right now.
And, uh, you actually
just gave me
a lot to think about actually.
Yeah. Definitely more anxious
than relaxed now.
[serene music playing]
[Tree] Like, oh, my God.
Like, she's like making
a stupid video.
Like, she puts this whole
project in danger.
She needs to go.
It's like, we're trying
to create community here
and it's really difficult
to do that
with people who you can't
really trust their motives.
I don't know
who I can trust anymore.
It's just this whole process
is so difficult.
You know, I do I feel like
I'm gonna get killed.
Tree, he's really good
at putting on a face
for the camera.
This, like, happy-go-lucky,
fun guy,
but I also see
a lot of ego.
[Tree] Narayah, you're here
making a video, like
And you're recording this.
Cool. Congratulations.
[Narayah] Why are you touching
my stuff?
[Tree speaking]
[Narayah speaking]
[scuffling]
-[Tyler] I can't.
-[Narayah speaking]
But why would he take your
Why would he take your phone?
[Tree] You're sitting there
making a video
and I feel in danger
about you being on the land.
I just have to take things
in my own hands now.
[Narayah speaking]
[Patrick] For what?
[Narayah speaking]
You're gonna call 911
and be like
[Narayah speaking]
All the things.
-[Tyler] He grabbed her phone.
-[Patrick]
I'm out of the loop.
[Tree] You don't understand,
like, how she's trying
to attack us right now.
[Tyler] What do you do
as, like, a community
when, like, that happens?
That's normal.
[Tree] She's calling the cops.
We gotta do something.
Vibe, Vibe, stop.
Vibe, Vibe, stop it.
Vibe. Please stop.
Please stop.
[Tree] And then here comes
the peacemakers.
[laughs]
[Narayah] When you get
a group of people
working together with control
and gaslighting
manipulation
All of the things are pointing
to cult.
-[police speaking]
-[Narayah] Yes.
[police speaking]