When I was an evacuee among 6,000 other mostly Orleans Parish people from the Lower 9th Ward, after the Katrina floods of August, 2005, I began to learn from my fellow companions -- stuck like myself in a huge meeting hall with essentially only a Red Cross cot, a quilted comforter, a pillow, a big towel, and a chair to call "home", and a few outfits of clothing -- about "the cult next door".

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People are drawn to New Orleans because they seemingly pick up on something that sets the sixth sense tingling, whether they have a lot of psi-talent or not. Inevitably, they will attract around themselves people who are also seeking similar experiences. They may be simply actors playing a role for the tourists. Or they could have set up an actual study center (see the old McMahon Funeral Home on Canal Street, for example). These are not cults, but they can sometimes be viewed as having the trappings of such.

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Or their beliefs in such things may go back for generations, as a way to cope with the tragedy and drama leveled at their ancestors on both sides of the Atlantic, going back perhaps thousands and thousands of years. They find kindred believers here.

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The difference is when adherents begin to have ceremonies and really begin to take them seriously. I would say that they go off the deep end, from what I have learned from my own studies into the mysticism associated with such groups. They may even market charms and expect adherents to costume a certain way. My key determination between a cult and a religion is that the cult probably does not have tax exempt status, while the religion does.

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As I stated above, there are those who pretend to belong to cults because it is fun. Then there are those who take the whole philosophy very seriously.

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What to do if a cult seems to have moved in right next door? In New Orleans, you learn not to laugh at either type of group. If one should take up residence next door, you may want to keep contact to a minimum, or even put up a high fence on the property line to keep out noise if needs be. Many of these groups in the city are actually headed by people who have impressive lists of political connections. Don't get into confrontations with them; they may call the police on you and file charges against you for making threats against them. In fact, they may deliberately set out to cause confrontations so they CAN call the police on you. If you call the police on them, you may not get much help at all, especially if you have no political connections whatsoever.

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Maybe you can take your family and pets over to a relative's house to camp out until noisy, nighttime gatherings "over there" wind down, probably towards daybreak. Or drive around the suburbs for hours, and keep checking back home until it appears that the ruckus has shut down for the night.

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This commentary may seem inconsequential, but I would hope it would inspire you out there to do more investigation into the cult scene here in New Orleans. I may write later on about Marie Leveau "the first", otherwise known as "The Window Paris".

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Good night. Pleasant dreams!