Church of Spiritual Technology: An Overview

The Church of Spiritual Technology was formed by Scientology leaders "as a way to get tax exemptions" for L Ron Hubbard's (LRH's) estate and other assets, with the goal of construction of a large mausoleum to store a cache of gold, according to former Scientology members. The CST properties are known only to a "select group of Scientologists" and were intended for access by the reincarnated spirit of LRH in his next life; when he was to return to Earth in the future (some say, 21 years after his death, or in January 2007) to assume power as a political leader in his quest for world conquest, per Scientology dogma.

The CST vaults, according to former Scientology PR Spokesman Robert Vaughn Young, were compared to a "pyramid for the pharaohs," perhaps as a reflection of the Egyptian origin of the "black magic" practiced by Hubbard as a follower of the philosophy of the British Satanist Alestair Crowley (as described by LRH's son, L Ron Hubbard Jr.), and perhaps as a response to 1977 FBI raids of Scientology headquarters (where seized documents were used as evidence by prosecutors, which resulted in imprisonment of top Scientology officials, including Mary Sue Hubbard, LRH's wife, in the early 1980's).

"Survival" is a theme that runs through LRH's works. It was said to be the subject of his unpublished manifesto titled "Excalibur" of the 1930's, and a later book was titled "Science of Survival" that was published in 1951. "The Future of Scientology," was an essay of "Ron's Journal 34" dated March 13, 1982 (LRH's 71st birthday), in which LRH wrote:

"(Scientology) will be here for all the decades and centuries that civilization has left to it (and) right now I am working on plans so that (Scientology) will be here even when the madmen…have blown this civilization away…We work in eternity."

The creation of CST was said to follow a LRH directive to secure his estate, which included the April 1981 hiring of tax attorneys such as Sherman Lenske. After research was conducted from May through October 1981, LRH reportedly supervised and approved a final version of his estate plan in early 1982. This coincided with an internal shuffling of officers within Scientology, as well as a financial redirection (which reportedly included abuse of an internal financial oversight official, and diversion of millions of dollars to new projects). The creation of CST was done at the time of Scientology's internal reorganization, called the "Mission Corporate Category Sort-out" (MCCS) effort of 1982, which followed the imprisonment of several of its top leaders for infiltration and espionage targeting US Government agencies in the 1970's. The described intent of MCSS was to obscure the control of Scientology by LRH. A former IRS Assistant Director, Meade Emory, consulted Scientology in this effort (of which, audiotaped meetings were said to later reveal an intent to defraud the IRS). However, Scientology officials have declared, that CST was always a separate corporate entity, independent of and not answerable to, other Scientology organizations. CST was registered as California Corporation #C1074287 on 5/28/1982. CST's original corporate articles stated a directive of "construction and maintenance of an imperishable structure, capable of withstanding the ravages of nuclear warfare to house the essence of Scientology for the benefit of future generations."

The archive concept was reportedly borrowed from the Mormon Church (whose records are stored in a granite mountain in Little Cottonwood Canyon in Utah, originally excavated in 1958-1963). CST property locations were stated to be chosen for their distance from "the pollution" of major cities, and in rural areas where constructed vaults were determined to be "not likely to be a nuclear target," per a CST official.

The meaning of the CST logo, can be at best only speculated by non-Scientologists. In the context of LRH's writings and life, the exterior of the CST logo resembles the numerical symbol for infinity (the digit "8" transposed horizontally) or a possibly a biochemical reference to "mitosis," and the interior "diamond" symbols resembles an overt visual reference to the "twin pyramids" of the altar of his LRH's mid-1940's "black magic" partner and practicing Satanist, Jack Whitesides Parsons.

To construct CST vault locations, estates, probate assets and other distressed properties were quietly purchased, sometimes through intermediaries, in mid-1983 through 1984 in Northern California, the San Bernardino Mountains, the Sierra Foothills, and in North-East New Mexico. A 5,000-acre ranch near Livermore, California, was also purchased, but later sold, and court records also mentioned an intent to acquire an additional property outside the USA. Ongoing efforts from 1987 included inquiries and acquisitions of bordering properties, from the US BLM and local neighbors, through at least 2002.

Gaining tax exemptions for the CST was pursued through an IRS application in 1983 (denied in 1988), and court cases at the US Claims Court in 1988 and at the US Supreme Court in 1992 (all lost). During what Scientology termed a "war" with the IRS, a former Scientology official (Vicki Aznaran, in a later statement) quoted current church leader David Miscavige as saying that the only way to resolve concurrent investigations by the IRS Criminal Division was "if the 'old man' (L. Ron Hubbard) dies," shortly before LRH's actual death in January 1986. In the early 1990's, the head of Scientology, David Miscavige made an unusual in-person appearance at IRS headquarters to request meetings with IRS Commissioner Fred T. Goldberg Jr, to settle outstanding issues to gain tax-exempt 501(c) (3) status. (A March 9, 1997 New York Times article by Doug Frantz, later detailed the Scientology's use of private investigators, to pressure IRS personnel into granting these tax exemptions in 1993).

Once IRS tax-free status was obtained, per its charter, CST also assumed control over all the copyrights held by other divisions of Scientology (including books, courses, auditing programs, etc.), making it the most powerful corporation within the complex Scientology legal structures. This is in line with CST's stated mandate to assure Scientology's "orthodoxy" by preserving the original works of Scientology scripture, beyond the death of L. Ron Hubbard and for at least the next millennium.

CST also registered a trademark named the "Star of Trust (an inverted pentagram) and a patent for a titanium box (as a "time capsule").

CST funding was provided through start-up grants from the "Flag Service Organization" of over $17 million in 1983, with other large grants from "Religious Technology Center" in the 1980's and $5 million from "Author's Family Trust-B" which handled L Ron Hubbard's estate; totaling over a declared $82 million when CST was granted IRS tax exemption in 1993. (Unacknowledged assets include a reported $500 million, apparently drawn from accounts in offshore Luxembourg banks such as "Banque Indo Suez" in the fiscal year following L Ron Hubbard's January 24, 1986 death).

Despite its considerable wealth, CST has sought to minimize operating expenses. Properties purchased in the 1980's were involved in estate sales tied to probate actions and bankruptcy. On properties with luxury residences or multi-million dollar vault structures, CST has used its federal tax-free status to try to bully county assessors into granting local property tax exemptions.

Perhaps CST's greatest economy has targeted its workers. Per details of a 1990 CST court filing; CST staff comprised a mere 5% of CST's operating expenditures, with an average wage far below US federal poverty levels. The CST staff, said to have been recruited via mailers to Scientologists in 1986, is comprised entirely of Scientology's elite "Sea Org" members.

CST staff was stated to be required to work a 830am to 11pm daily schedule (averaging over 90 hours weekly, with one day off every 2nd week) after signing a "billion-year" contract, all for a described $30 "weekly allowance." Although living quarters and communal kitchens are provided, this "subsistence level" compensation has left members with no personal cash reserves to handle "rainy day" expenses (such as vehicle repairs or travel required to attend to family emergencies). This appears consistent with court documents of one of LRH's "affirmations" of the 1940's, which stated that "all men shall be my slaves." This also contrasts with reports of the lifestyles of top-level Scientology executives and their celebrity associates, who are said to enjoy church-provided privileges such as travel by private jet and who have use of luxury residences at Scientology properties.

Despite the P O Box address in Los Angeles for its corporate officers, CST's main administrative building is in the Twin Peaks postal district in the San Bernardino National Forest in Southern California. There, materials including L Ron Hubbard's works were reportedly prepared to last a minimum of 1,000 years by the estimated 45 members of the CST staff. This includes over 500,000 pages of original Scientology manuscripts, many donated from private collections during an acquisition effort of the mid-1980's, as well as audio recordings and films by L. Ron Hubbard. It was stated that procedures developed in conjunction with the National Archives determined preservation techniques for paper, audio, video, and other written materials, frequently involving metals such as stainless steel, titanium, and gold. An IRS filing reportedly described these efforts to produce 1.8 million stainless steel plates and 187,000 nickel records. Patents were acquired by CST for various preservation objects, such as a "time capsule" composed of titanium and filled with argon gas.

Construction on the first "vault" in New Mexico began with a tunneling project about 1986. Work in Northern California and San Bernardino followed, with the most extensive project being the Petrolia vault on the "Lost Coast" of Northern California. The most recent vault is located in the Lady Washington gold mine near Tuolumne in the Sierra Foothills in Central California. (Other rumored sites are near Paradise Bay in "Kattlehong" of South Africa, "Crow's Nest Landing" in ("New South Wales") or Australia, and at Creston in California).

Where available, local building records detail remarkably similar installations of a "nuclear survival" infrastructure, including: Off-the-grid electrical generator buildings, disproportionately large water, gasoline, diesel and propane tanks, unusual mechanisms for piping in filtered and pressurized air, and extensive security apparatus including cameras and electrical fences. The use of bronze and stainless steel metal interior themes, per descriptions provided by a few non-Scientologist visitors to these vaults, corroborates repeated "metal themes" of LRH's books like Battlefield Earth and Mission Earth, as well as Scientology locations and operations titled "Gold Base" (near Gilman Hot Springs, California) and "Operation Goldmine" (targeting Clearwater, Florida). Architectural renderings also detail weird occult designs including triangular rooms and markings. To some, these triangular designs are reminiscent of the triangular castle at Wewelsburg, Germany, which was constructed in the 1930's by Nazi SS official Heinrich Himmler (reportedly as a site for initiation of high-level SS officers). Another triangular-based design, of a triangle within a circle, is used at a building entrance, and resembles that of the Scientology logo for their "New World Corps" organization (which is a triangle within a circle, superimposed upon the Earth). It is noted that this "triangle within a circle" symbol, appeared earlier in 1920, on the cover of a Rosicrucian book titled "The Way to Happiness." It appears that LRH, who was a Rosicrucian briefly in 1940 (his membership expired from non-payment of dues), may have appropriated this symbol and the title of that book, from the Rosicrucian group (whose followers, include the 19th century Emperor Napoleon).

Aerial and satellite imagery of CST sites also captures where the unusual CST logo has been carved into the earth (perhaps as aerial signposts for landing aircraft, or in conjunction with LRH's science-fiction writings, as land markings for alien spaceships).

An ultimate intent of the Church of Spiritual Technology (which is not a church itself, but a corporation) may have been described by former Scientologist Steve Fishman, said to be a former financial courier for Scientology, who was at the time of correspondence was imprisoned (in 1991).

Fishman described an "Operation Paper Chase," as "the largest money laundering operation in the world." As part of LRH's "dream to gain control of the planet economically," Scientologists were said to be planted as low-level administrators to Risk Analysts at various "quasi-governmental agencies" (such as the World Bank, the Export-Import Bank, the Council on Foreign Relations, and others), to report on governments that were in risk of loan defaults. Scientology financiers were said to then buy highly leveraged "short" sales positions on these currencies (so that a $100 million dollars could place pressure on $10 billion of foreign currency). It was said that each 1% drop of an affected currency, would result in a doubling of profits from the currency option positions. The proceeds were said to be held in various banking houses tied to small European nations like Liechtenstein, Andorra and San Marino, and used to purchase gold. Fishman also stated that these currency pressures precipitated world events, such as the Iranian government collapse of 1979 and the Iraq-Kuwait war of 1991. If this account is accurate, it would support a theory that the "stainless steel plates" inscribed with LRH's writings, could internally be filled with gold. An account of converting gold to other objects (coffin lids) to avoid detection by others, was a significant plot point of the character of the evil alien "psychlo" named "Terl," within LRH's 1982 novel "Battlefield Earth." This would also seem to justify extraordinary construction designs and extensive security system installations, at the vault sites.

(Reference: http://www.whyaretheydead.net/misc/Factnet/FISH6.TXT)

These analyses, taken together, could conclude that the vaults constructed by the Church of Spiritual Technology may represent a gold repository, from which Scientology intended to leverage the paper currencies of various governments, ...as both a moneymaking venture and as a vehicle for acquiring future political power over Earth.

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Occult Meanings of Scientology logos HERE