David C. Lewis (preacher)

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David C. Lewis, religious leader claiming to communicate with the Ascended masters, who started a movement based on the Church Universal and Triumphant (hereafter refered to as "C.U.T.").

After Elizabeth Clare Prophet was no longer in leadership, a number of individuals have come forward claiming to give dictations from the Ascended Masters. Two of these, the former C.U.T. minister Monroe Shearer and his wife Carolyn, founded a new activity in 1995, The Temple of the Presence, based in Tucson, Arizona. Another former church official, David C. Lewis, who served on the staff of C.U.T. for over 22 years began publishing dictations of the Ascended Masters in 2005. He had approached the council of elders asking to be recognized as a messenger though it required unanimous consent of all 24 Elders who then, except for one elder, rejected Lewis' claim. With seven others, many of whom also served on the staff of CUT for decades, Lewis began a new organization called "The Hearts Center" which is growing rapidly and now has over a dozen centers in the United States and abroad. It operates primarily as a virtual community and publishes daily dictations, many of which occur at the Wellspring Retreat near Emigrant, Montana — not far from the C.U.T. headquarters in Corwin Springs. His claims were apparently rejected for a number of reasons, such as that he did not follow proper procedure in applying to be a "messenger" and the fact that he spread the news of his new "messages" to others without first consulting the elders. Lewis disputes those claims, stating that he was summarily dismissed from his position as a trustee at the church's local branch in Livingston without a hearing and that the Elders did not follow their own procedures by reviewing Lewis' application before he was denounced by the church leadership publicly shortly after his submission. Lewis claims that the process for how one applies to be a messenger has never been made public and that the elder to whom he submitted his application told him "there won't be any more messengers."

The Shearers have dismissed Lewis's claim to messengership, much as Elizabeth Clare Prophet dismissed the Shearer's claim, and as the leader of The Bridge to Freedom, Geraldine Innocente, dismissed the claim of The Summit Lighthouse founder Mark L. Prophet. The Hearts Center's views are more eclectic and Lewis has avoided public denunciations of other movements, choosing instead to honor all previously sponsored activities and to attempt to build upon the previous dispensations.