Category:Church of Spiritual Technology: Difference between revisions

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Church of Spiritual Technology

Hollywood Guaranty Building
Formation	May 28, 1982 (1982-05-28)
Jurisdiction	us_ca
Type	Sea Org
Tax ID no.	95-3781769
Registration no.	C1074287
Headquarters	6331 Hollywood Blvd. Ste 1200, Los Angeles, California, USA
Coordinates	34°6′6.87″N 118°19′40.36″W / 34.1019083°N 118.3278778°W / 34.1019083; -118.3278778
President	Russell Bellin[1]
Secretary	Jeanne Reynolds
Treasurer	Arthur Bolstad
Agent	Jeanne Reynolds
Subsidiaries	Author Services Inc Mile High, Inc

A logo of the Church of Spiritual Technology

The Church of Spiritual Technology, also known as CST, is a Californian 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation^[2], incorporated in 1982, which owns all the copyrights of the estate of L. Ron Hubbard. The CST is doing business as L. Ron Hubbard Library. The organization receives its income from royalty fees paid to it by licensing of the copyrighted materials of Dianetics and Scientology to Scientology-connected organizations approved by the Religious Technology Center, and from its wholly owned for-profit subsidiary Author Services Inc. which publishes and promotes Hubbard's fiction works.^[3]

In a 1993 memorandum by the Church of Scientology International, the role and function of CST has been described as follows:

"[...] CST [...] is an autonomous church of the Scientology religion outside of the international Scientology ecclesiastical hierarchy. CST conducts an extensive program of activities to preserve and archive the Scientology Scriptures for use by future generations. CST also owns the option to acquire RTC's rights to the Scientology advance[d] technology and religious marks under three narrowly defined sets of circumstances, each of which contemplates a serious threat to continued existence of the religion. CST is the principal beneficiary of Mr. Hubbard's estate, provided that it obtains recognition of its tax-exempt status. [...]"^[4]

Corporate Information

The Creston Ranch where L. Ron Hubbard spent his final years, currently owned by CST.

Basic Information

The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) was incorporated by Sherman Lenske in Woodland Hills, California on May 27th, 1982^[5]. The Bylaws of CST were signed on June 7th, 1982 by its General and Special Directors, who were at that time Lyman Spurlock, Rebecca Pook, Maria Starkey, Stephen A. Lenske, Sherman D. Lenske and Lawrence A. Heller^[6]. In 1986, CST's Articles of Incorporation were amended to clarify the "disposition of the corporation's assets upon dissolution"^[7].

On August 18th, 1993, CST filed an application for tax exemption under section 501(c)#501(c)(3)|501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code^[8]. The Internal Revenue Service granted CST's request for exemption through an official recognition letter on October 1st, 1993^[9].

At the time of the filing for tax exemption, the following individuals held corporate positions at CST: The Board of Trustees was composed of John Allcock, David Lantz and Russell Bellin. Thomas Vorm, Russell Bellin and Catherine Schmidt formed the Board of Directors. CST's president was Russell Bellin, its vice-president Thomas Vorm, its secretary Jane McNairn and its treasurer Catherine Schmidt^[8].

Licensing of Trademarks & Service Marks

The existence and founding of CST is intimately connected to the creation of the Religious Technology Center, which was incorporated on January 1st, 1982. Shortly after its inception, RTC received on May 16th 1982 "the ownership, supervision and control" of the trademarks and service marks, identifying "Scientology applied religious philosophy" and "Dianetics spiritual healing technology" by the originator and founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard through a so-called "Assignment Agreement"^[10].

This agreement was subject to an additional "Option Agreement" between Hubbard, RTC and CST. In two so-called "Option Agreements" from May 1982, Hubbard granted CST the right to purchase at any time from RTC the "Marks", the "Advanced Technology" and all the rights to them for the sum of $ 100^[11][12].

Parallel and similar sounding agreements between Hubbard, RTC and CST were created during that period concerning the so-called "Advanced Technology," which consists of unpublished derivates of Scientology's confidential "Advanced technology"^[13].

Under these agreements, RTC is forced to turn over 90% of its net income to CST. A document from 1991, reflecting the "financial money flows" of RTC during the year 1989, actually showed a turnover of 59% of RTC's net income towards CST^[14].

Other examples of trademarks and service marks, which are owned by CST are The Way to Happiness and The Way to Happiness symbol. As such, CST operates as the L. Ron Hubbard Library.^[15]

California corporate information

California Business Search as of December 15, 2014:

Archives

The CST oversees the Scientology scriptural archiving project, which aims to preserve the works of Hubbard on stainless steel tablets and encased in titanium capsules in specially constructed vaults throughout the United States.^[16] The most famous example is the Trementina Base, an underground vault built into a mountainside near Trementina, New Mexico. It is marked by a CST logo visible only from the air and was built in the late 1980s.^[17][18]

Structure

The very first time the Church of Spiritual Technology was mentioned publicly to scientologists by COB RTC David Miscavige in 2000 on the New Year's event. ^[19] Its founders included Meade Emory,^[20] a non-Scientologist who used to work for the Internal Revenue Service but went into private practice as a tax lawyer. He was hired as a specialist for the complex Internal Revenue Codes. The Church of Scientology International and most Scientology organizations settled with the IRS about 11 years later when the service passed a resolution in 1993 declaring them tax-exempt.

Unlike other Scientology organizations (which require all corporate officers to be Scientologists in good standing), as well as the Scientologist general directors and staff, the Church of Spiritual Technology includes "Special Directors" who are not required to be Scientologists, but who are required to be lawyers "to ensure that CST takes no action to jeopardize its tax-exempt status" (CST vs. IRS, US Claims Court No. 581-88T, June 29, 1992).^[21]

Tax information

Updated	July 12, 2018 (2018-07-12)
Registration
Name	Church Of Spiritual Technology
EIN	95-3781769
Subsection	03 - Charitable Organizations
Deductibility	1 - Contributions are deductible.
Ruling date	10/1993

Lobbyist activity

Church of Spiritual Technology

See also

• Scientology vaults
• Church of Spiritual Technology article from Wikipedia

Notes

External links

• Scientology's shell game.
• CST vs. IRS 1992 "The Articles of Incorporation require that CST have three such Special Directors, and further requires that they be lawyers in order to ensure that CST takes no action to jeopardize its tax-exempt status. The General Directors and staff of CST are, however, closely linked to other Scientology organizations. The General Directors (the governing body) must be in good standing with the mother church. Staff members are required to be members of the Sea Org. Trustees of the organization are required to have been Scientologists for at least eight years, and must be highly trained in the teachings and technology of Scientology. CST trustees are also required to remain actively involved in giving and receiving Scientology services. They must also participate in at least twelve and one half hours of training per week."