Compassion Fulfilled - A Conversation with Louix Dor Dempriey by Sydney L. Murray
This has been an interesting month. So much has happened—some of it devastating, such as the loss of a friend; some surprising, like the reactions you may not want in a person whom you trust. When I think of what compassion means to me, it’s to live with grace and have the forethought of love and kindness toward those who surround me. I have to admit that I did not always reach this lofty goal during the month. Instead, I have chosen to look at all of the kindness and generosity of spirit I have offered, overall, and be grateful for those moments of grace I experienced during a difficult time.
In the middle of this challenging month I had the good fortune to speak with Louix Dor Dempriey who has offered up his life to service and to bettering the world we live in. Some may question his motivations, but his words ring of a profound truth in my heart.
Vision Magazine: Tell me about your background and what influenced you to become the teacher you are today.
Louix Dor Dempriey: I hail from the Boston area. I am one of four children born to Italian-American parents and my education was the product of traditional public and private schools and four years of college. My spiritual life was thriving, alive and awake, from birth, and I had a deep knowing of who I was right from the get-go. I had many mystical and powerful experiences during childhood, such as being able to travel outside of my body and an in-person encounter with Jesus when I was 5 years old. He materialized and manifested himself in my room and talked to me for about 15 minutes and shared with me two key revelations regarding my future—one that ended up happening at age 13 and another at around age 30. People used to appear in my room, after they had passed away, and would talk to me about where they had gone and what they were doing. They would also give me words to share with their families [those who survived them].
A lot of these abilities—what people call “paranormal”—were with me from childhood. For example, people would call me and I would often pick the phone up before it rang and say their name. It was always funny little things like that. I also had the ability to communicate with animals. Wild animals used to walk right up to me and sometimes even touch me, so I knew there was something going on.
I continued in my earthly life while not really making a fuss over everything. I didn’t think it was paranormal—it was just my life. I had a childhood dream to become an actor and movie star. I pursued acting voraciously and that led me, after college, to New York City, where I began training to be an actor. I eventually made my way to Hollywood and had a thriving career in show business doing TV, film, commercials and voice-overs.
In May of 1990 I had a spiritual awakening and my crown blasted open. I went into Samadhi for a week. I didn’t sleep a wink or eat one morsel of food. I had so much ‘current’ running through my body that I had an experience of complete and total omnipresence. I could see and hear everything about everyone, everywhere, in or out of my presence.
This is what people call the “gift of safe healing” and it was awakened in my hands. I started, at that time, doing readings. People caught wind of what was going on, and they would ask me questions and ask for guidance. I began going into schools—junior high, high school, and college—to work with the guidance counselors. When the awakening happened, it just catapulted me into the stratosphere. It became like a full-blown ministry. People were coming for readings and healings on their bodies, and it was quite amazing.
I then started having mystical experiences too, such as encounters with beings, ascended masters and angels, and extra-terrestrials. I started calling out to God. I was raised a Catholic but I left the church at 13 following one of those revelations from Jesus when I was 5. I was devastated to leave the church. I knew that as much as I loved my religion, it was too limiting for what I knew to be true. There were certain beliefs that I knew were not accurate, such as the devil and original sin. Other concepts, like fearing God and a God that punishes people, I did not believe in. As a child, I was constantly at odds with the priests. I would ask them questions that they could not answer.
When I left the church, I had nowhere to turn. All I knew was God, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the angels and saints, so I began calling to them, “Please, tell me what is going on and what is happening to me. Send me someone who can help me.” I said that prayer every night in bed and after three months I met an individual who became a spiritual teacher for me. I was taken to a mystery school where the faculty awakened within me the ability to speak with, and to celestial beings. I would go into a trance state, which in Sanskrit is known as Bhava-Samadhi and these beings would coagulate in my body and minister through me.
I trained for four years and then my liberation, or enlightenment, happened on March 7, 1996 and I was off on my own ministry. I walked away from the world for the third time. I left my job, my school, and everything I had, and it was just me, God and the world.
And then people started coming. Money came in. I trusted and surrendered. In 1997, I had a vision—one which God had given me. I had an in-person encounter with Parmahansa Yogananda and he materialized in the room, put his hand on my head, and blessed me with my Sanskrit name Sri Pranananda. He came again, shortly thereafter, to announce the opening of my ashram. I didn’t know what any of this stuff meant and he said, “You don’t have to. You are it.”
Jump to ten years later and I was making pilgrimages around the world to sacred sites, and leading retreats, group events, seminars, workshops as well as doing private counseling, teaching classes, and guiding people individually.
In 1997 we finally had the means and enough people to form the foundation that bears my name. We incorporated and just last year, submitted our petition for non-profit status. We’ve got three ashrams in Australia and the Mother Center is in Laguna Hills, as well as other centers and groups around the world.
I married in 2000 and began raising a family so I stopped most of my traveling. By early 2000, I wasn’t doing the pilgrimages anymore. I needed to help set up the foundation and take care of my kids. For now, my wife and two of my daughters are living in Hawaii. We’re still legally married but living apart—she is going through what she needs to go through right now. Our eldest child—a son, passed away three years ago at the age of 15. It’s been quite a ride. I have been through a lot of initiations and a lot of blessings.
VM: What led you to this life of service?
LDD: There are two factors. One is my insatiable hunger for God, which was there from birth. When I was young and I would sit in church every week, all I wanted to do was be an altar boy or the priest. I wanted to climb up on the altar. God was my overall driving force. But when I looked at the world, everything seemed wrong. People were cruel and mean; deluded by things that they chased and pursued that would never bring them happiness. I saw people not living the way I knew we were all meant to live—in peace, in joy, in love. I had an ache inside to help people find deep inner peace and communion with God.
VM: Why do you think that having compassion in one’s life, mind and heart is so important?
LDD: Compassion is critically important. I define compassion as seeing and experiencing the world and one’s life through someone else’s eyes and feeling body. To have compassion for others, to experience life through others’ eyes, is to have compassion for ourselves and it teaches us to care for and love other people unconditionally. Through this vehicle, we are taught to love, forgive, accept, cherish and nurture ourselves.
VM: You have taught the art of self-inquiry and you have said it’s one of the most powerful tools that we can use to grow as humans and liberate our souls.
LDD: This, too, is a most pivotal aspect of who I am and what I teach. Because there is nothing outside of self—we create everything in our world and in our environment. We create all of our relationships. We create everything that happens to us. We are the screenwriter, the director, the producer, the star, and we are theatre itself. We are the driving force within our lives—the co-creators with God. So, we should always look within the self: “Why did I create this?” and “What is it teaching me?” This is how we master all of life’s lessons. Earth is God’s classroom. We’re here to remember, discover and restore our original, divine blueprint, which is our inherent divinity and to walk as God on Earth. That is why Earth is a paradise that was given to us, to enjoy as gods and goddesses. We can see that we were created by God, as God, and in God’s image.
We are like the creator, too. If we look at ourselves as the source of all and as the co-creator of everything, then we are fully accountable, we take full responsibility and this empowers us to see that anything we don’t like in our lives and in our circumstances, we have the power to change. We are here to incorporate and integrate all the aspects of our divinity and to balance, transmute, cleanse and calm the disassociated parts of self and the parts of us that are living in exile from God and love.
It goes back to self-inquiry because all you come into the world with is your consciousness. And all you leave with is the evolution of your consciousness. However you grow, integrate, or love, is the only thing you take with you. That self-inquiry is the single most powerful vehicle for becoming greater at offering unconditional love.
VM: So, self-inquiry is simply asking, “How do I feel?” and “Why did I create this situation?”
LDD: Yes, absolutely. “Why did I create this?” Everything is a blessing, whether it is painful or pleasurable; whether it is a win or a loss, a success or a failure. Everything is a gift. Everything we magnetize in our lives teaches us something. Sometimes it is to acknowledge the great things about ourselves so that we feel more confidence, self-assuredness, and self-love. Other times, we magnetize situations that may be confronting or conflicting, which helps us polish some of the rough edges of the crystal.
VM: If there were one thing that everyone can do—regardless of his or her belief structure—that would make the world a better place, what would it be?
LDD: Love everyone and everything all the time. It sounds lofty, but when put into practice—it’s quite a task— and it can be done. It’s easy to bless people and say, “I love you” when we’re in a prayer circle, at a retreat or while watching a sunset. But when someone is giving you the finger in traffic, or when a waiter is being rude, this is when it is the most challenging to be forgiving and kind and to bless people. Or, when people are jealous or envious; one-upping you, or condemning you—this is when it is the most difficult to be loving and when God most needs you to be. Try your best to experience the world through other people’s eyes so that you have compassion and you are not just seeing it through your own filter of judgment.
Also, forgive everyone and everything. The power of forgiveness goes hand in hand with the power of apology. Ask for forgiveness. The healing and transforming power of this is immense. Most people have not even discovered the alchemical, transmutative power of true forgiveness. A lot of us think we forgive but we don’t—we may still hold judgment, and grudges. ‘I’ll forgive you if you forgive me. I’ll apologize if you apologize.’ Conditional apologies and conditional forgiveness is conditional love. To break the word down: It literally means for give—like giving as before. I am giving you my love as before the transaction or the altercation occurred. This is a high level of mastery, to go back to the same if not greater love for the person in the face of adversity. This is one of the most powerful gifts that we can offer. This makes the world better.
Lastly, don’t pollute. Be kind. Don’t hurt any living being—any animal, any plant, any part of the Earth or human. Be kind to everything and everyone. This is what you and I both know and it is one of the foundations of all the world’s major religions. “Do unto others, as you would have them do unto you.”
VM: What does “Compassionate Living” mean to you?
LDD: Bless everyone all the time. When you practice true compassion, you learn and acquire the gifts—the divine qualities of patience, forgiveness, mercy, perseverance, endurance, tolerance, understanding and wisdom. You exalt [these virtues] enough within yourself so that the gift you give to others is the gift you give to yourself, ultimately.
Louix Dor Dempriey is a spiritual Master who has come into this world to help others restore their inherent divinity and live as unconditional love. Louix’s darshan, as well as his illuminating discourses, meditations, and ceremonies, have invoked profound transformation in thousands of people worldwide. Louix imparts timeless wisdom in contemporary, practical teachings—that transcend all faiths, paths, religions, and cultures. He resides at Prema Drala Ashram, located in Laguna Hills, California. For more information, please visit: www.Louix.org.