David, the sixth of ten siblings, was born in 1956 to Catholic parents, Bob and Verla Lewis. The Lewis family lived in Hinsdale, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, for much of his childhood and youth. At fourteen, through his mother's suggestion, David read a book on Edgar Cayce. This was his first exposure to karma, reincarnation, auras, ancient civilizations, and mysticism. David said, from that moment on “I was hooked! I knew it was the truth and it was a major shift in my life.”
A few years later he discovered a book titled,
The Essene Gospel of Peace, by Edmond Bordeaux Szekely, which had a profound impact on him. At 17, desirous of a closer walk with God, David fasted for a week on water and a bit of honey, culminating in a mystical experience with Jesus.
In 1974, at age 18, David learned of the ascended master teachings through The Summit Lighthouse and attended his first conference in July of that year in Spokane, Washington. In 1975, he participated in a three-month intensive at Summit University, their educational component. And soon after, he helped establish the Minneapolis/St. Paul Teaching Center for the organization.
In April 1976, he was invited to join The Summit's headquarters staff in Colorado Springs and eventually relocated with them to Camelot, their spiritual center in the Malibu Canyon Mountains near Calabasas, California.
David married in 1986. In the summer of 1987, he and his wife moved with The Summit staff to Paradise Valley, Montana, north of Yellowstone National Park. David served on staff for 25 years, primarily in the customer service, accounting, conference, and shipping departments. He was the director of the Keepers of the Flame Fraternity from 2002 to 2004 and helped purchase St. Mark's Church at the corner of D and Lewis Streets in Livingston.
In 1995, David launched Paradise Prints and Paradise Artworks Gallery & Framing. After a mystical experience, culminating in the formation of The Hearts Center Community in January 2005, David sold his frame shop and gallery later that year. It is still in operation as of 2024 under the name, Avery’s Artworx on Main Street in Livingston, next door to David's original store location.
Revelation
On June 6, 2004, during a Sunday morning service at St. Mark’s Church in Livingston, Montana, David had a mystical spiritual experience. He explains, “… [I]n a moment of timelessness … I experienced oneness with God, a mystical union of my soul with God’s Oversoul. ” The next day, David began receiving messages from the ascended masters. He later wrote of the experience:
By God’s grace, I have been able, because of a very wonderful dispensation, to communicate with the ascended masters. They communicate with me. I never expected this to happen. Yet on June 6, 2004, I had a mystical experience during a church service while we were singing a song to Jesus and another master named Kuthumi, or K.H. I was taken up in consciousness to a very high state of being, beyond my body. The masters Jesus and Kuthumi communicated to me at this higher level and asked me to receive dictation as an amanuensis for them. I did not know fully at that time, of course, what that would entail in years to come.
I began my next day by praying, being still, and then preparing to simply write what I thought would be a composite of many of my personal spiritual experiences throughout this lifetime. Instead, beloved Jesus came to me and dictated a very beautiful and poignant message; the next day, the Master Kuthumi dictated. I continued receiving HeartStreams daily from various masters and, in time, The Hearts Center movement was founded.
During these sacred HeartStreams, a very delicate fabric of light is woven through my consciousness, and the ascended masters speak beautiful words. Yet more important than the words is the light that they emit and that flow through the master’s chakras, which are superimposed over mine. Truly, everyone in the audience becomes an active participant in the release of the message that is conveyed, as the masters activate their chakras and pour light through them as well.
Often, nothing that I say will be new to your soul, because in your Higher Self you already know everything. What is occurring now upon Earth is simply a reawakening of all of us to the higher truth that we, at a very deep, deep level, have always known throughout our embodiments. Yet now, in this age, it is time to self-realize who we are and become the fullness of our God Self, our reality. Each and every one of you has done something in your life to participate at this level of beingness, whereby you live in the essence of your true nature. And something is occurring within you that is beautiful; it is a metamorphosis of your spirit, fully, so that you can emerge as a Christed being, as the real you.
On December 21, 2004, David wrote a letter addressed to the leadership of Church Universal and Triumphant, as he had been asked to do by the ascended masters who were communing with him, requesting to be trained as their new messenger, following the retirement in 1999 of their previous messenger, Elizabeth Clare Prophet. The Church elders rejected his application, and one board member declared unequivocally “there will be no more messengers in The Summit.”
The Hearts Center
In 2005, again at the request of the ascended masters, David co-founded The Hearts Center Community with seven other individuals. Today, David continues to act as messenger for the movement. He regularly leads prayer services, events, and pilgrimages, and acts as an amanuensis for the ascended masters.