Organizations
Church of Spiritual Technology
Also Known As CST
Religious Body
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Origin from 1982
The Church of Spiritual Technology (CST) is a Scientology-affiliated religious corporation that holds copyright over the published and unpublished works of L. Ron Hubbard, including Scientology's confidential Operating Thetan course materials, and licenses their use within the Scientology organization. Alongside the Religious Technology Center, which licenses Scientology's technology and trademarks, CST has taken legal action against unauthorized reproduction of Hubbard's copyrighted and trade secret material, most notably in the 1990s when portions of the confidential upper level materials were posted online without authorization. CST also preserves Hubbard's works in long term archives, reportedly engraved on steel plates and stored in vaulted, titanium capsule repositories. The atlas records CST's role as a rights holder without reproducing the material it controls.
Facts
Finances
Institutional Wealth or FinancesThe Church of Spiritual Technology (CST), the Scientology corporate entity that holds the movement's archival and intellectual property assets, reported a book value of 447,192,921 US dollars in assets as of 2012, according to its own IRS Form 990-T unrelated business income filings. This was, at that time, the second largest of Scientology's corporate holdings after Church of Scientology International's 846,314,618 US dollars, within a combined total of roughly 1.7 billion US dollars in assets across Scientology's religious corporations. 4 Basis of the Wealth Figure Financial Disclosure RegimeAs a US tax exempt religious corporation, the Church of Spiritual Technology files IRS returns including Form 990-T for unrelated business income, which is how its asset figures have become public; it does not otherwise publish its own financial statements. 4 Wealth Figure As Of Year History
Historical NoteA party to 1990s litigation, including Religious Technology Center v. Netcom, over unauthorized online distribution of Hubbard's confidential upper level course materials. 2 Status
Legal StatusHolds copyright over L. Ron Hubbard's published and unpublished works, including the confidential Operating Thetan materials, and licenses their use within the Scientology organization. 3 Practice NotePreserves Hubbard's written and recorded works in long term archives, reportedly engraved on stainless steel plates and stored in vaulted, titanium capsule repositories. 3 Current StatusSourced to the subject's own accountContinues today as a Scientology-affiliated religious corporation holding copyright over L. Ron Hubbard's works, licensing their use within the Scientology organization, and preserving them in long term archives reportedly engraved on steel plates and stored in vaulted, titanium capsule repositories. 1 Origins
Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account FounderSourced to the subject's own accountIncorporated as a California nonprofit religious corporation by Sherman Lenske in Woodland Hills, California, on 27 May 1982; its bylaws were signed 7 June 1982 by directors Lyman Spurlock, Rebecca Pook, Maria Starkey, Stephen A. Lenske, Sherman D. Lenske and Lawrence A. Heller. 1 FoundedSourced to the subject's own accountFormed in 1982 to own and manage the copyrights to L. Ron Hubbard's works and to preserve Scientology scripture, an autonomous Church of Scientology sitting outside the ordinary Scientology ecclesiastical hierarchy. 1 Organisation
Distinguishing FeatureOperates alongside the Religious Technology Center, which licenses Scientology's technology and trademarks, the two together controlling access to Hubbard's copyrighted and trade secret materials. 3 Governing BodySourced to the subject's own accountA California 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation whose bylaws require its Special Directors, unlike other Scientology organizations, to be lawyers rather than necessarily Scientologists, so as not to jeopardise its tax-exempt status. 1 Learn More
Incorporated to Hold Hubbard's Copyrights
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
The Church of Spiritual Technology was incorporated as a California nonprofit religious corporation by Sherman Lenske in Woodland Hills, California, on 27 May 1982, with bylaws signed 7 June 1982 by directors Lyman Spurlock, Rebecca Pook, Maria Starkey, Stephen A. Lenske, Sherman D. Lenske and Lawrence A. Heller. It was formed to own and manage the copyrights to L. Ron Hubbard's works, including Scientology's confidential Operating Thetan course materials, and to preserve Scientology scripture, an autonomous Church of Scientology sitting outside the ordinary Scientology ecclesiastical hierarchy rather than reporting up through it the way most Scientology organizations do.
Its bylaws require its Special Directors, unlike other Scientology organizations, to be lawyers rather than necessarily Scientologists, a structural choice made so as not to jeopardise the corporation's tax exempt status under United States nonprofit law. That legal design set the pattern for the organization's work ever since: a rights holding body built to protect Hubbard's copyrighted and trade secret material through the ordinary machinery of American nonprofit and intellectual property law, staffed at its board level by lawyers rather than by clergy in the way a conventional religious body's governing board would be.
Steel Plates and Titanium Capsule Archives
This article records tradition as it has been passed down and reported. Its sources are not yet part of the atlas's verified catalogue.
Alongside its copyright holding role, the Church of Spiritual Technology operates alongside the Religious Technology Center, which licenses Scientology's technology and trademarks, the two together controlling access to Hubbard's copyrighted and trade secret materials across the whole Scientology organization. The Church has taken legal action against unauthorized reproduction of that material, most notably in the 1990s, when portions of the confidential upper level Operating Thetan course materials were posted online without authorization, a period during which the organization pursued copyright claims in court to stop the material's further spread.
The Church also preserves Hubbard's works in long term archives, reportedly engraved on steel plates and stored in vaulted, titanium capsule repositories, a preservation method built to outlast ordinary paper and digital archiving by centuries rather than merely decades. The atlas records the Church's role as a rights holder and archivist without reproducing the confidential material it controls, consistent with the same restraint the underlying source material itself observes when describing an organization built specifically to keep that material out of unauthorized circulation.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
This source names Church of Spiritual Technology directly: "The English Wikipedia article on the Church of Spiritual Technology, the California nonprofit religious corporation that archives Scientology scripture, incorporated 1982."
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