Musician, millionaire,
master salesman; drug
dealer, convict;
entrepreneur,
benefactor, wise and
revered meditation
teacher — Alan Gompers
has led an amazing life.
His life-long search for
recognition, power and
love drove him to make
(and lose)
million-dollar fortunes,
betray friends and
family and deal drugs,
which ultimately brought
him a 15-to-life prison
sentence. It was in a
maximum security prison
that he finally found –
deep within himself–
what he had been
seeking: the true
meaning of freedom.
This is his
story – Maximum
Security: The True
Meaning of Freedom.
Born in
1939 in New York, Alan Gompers
grew up in Parkchester, a
middle-class housing project
with a population of close to
60,000 people, which still
stands today, just south of
Tremont Avenue on Unionport
Road, in the Bronx.
He started
his performing career at the age
of 8, playing his saxophone. At
the age of 14, while a student
at Music & Art High School, he
began a singing career by
forming a Doo Wop group known as
the Montclairs. He wrote most of
the original music and
orchestrated the arrangements
for their records and on-stage
routines. The Montclairs are
best known for their recordings
of "Good Night Sweetheart" and
"A Broken Promise."
![Hunter College](images/hunter.jpg) During his
college days, Alan earned a
living as a professional
musician, playing in the famous
resort hotels in the Catskills
Mountains of New York. During
that time, he graduated from
Hunter College, taught health &
physical education in the NY
City High Schools and attended
graduate school working towards
a Masters Degree.
Alan
remained a teacher for about
eight years. He left teaching in
1970 and entered the financial
community. Within a year, he
went from a stockbroker to sales
manager, to a full-time partner
in an investment-banking firm.
During the next three years,
Alan's company raised over $50
million in underwritings and
became one of the largest
over-the-counter brokerage
houses in the country. He did
this through a combination of
sales genius, masterful
manipulation and systematic
disregard for rules and
regulations. His firm was
ultimately closed by the SEC for
violating securities law and he
received federal probation.
![Pocono Mountains](images/poconos.jpg)
Alan
started a real estate company in
1973, marketing land and homes
in the fast developing Pocono’s
Mountains of Pennsylvania. After
a highly successful run in the
real estate business, he opened
an elegant nightclub in
Westchester County, a classy
suburb of New York City. He
also began dealing drugs.
![Prision](images/prison.jpg)
During his
tenure as a nightclub owner, he
became a professional boxing
promoter and manager. One of his
fighters was on the verge of
becoming a world champion when
Alan was arrested for selling
drugs and sentenced to 15 years
to-life in a maximum-security
prison.
In the
most unexpected way, in this
most unlikely of places, his
sentence would prove to be the
turning point in his life.
Although Alan had achieved an
extraordinary amount of success
in the world, he was now facing
the possibility of never tasting
freedom again. This terrifying
realization led him to begin
looking deeply at himself,
desperately trying to find some
answers, some light, and some
hope.
What he
saw was that he had led a life
entangled in lust, deception,
manipulation, and finally
betrayal. Ultimately, it was his
pride, ego and greed that
brought him to his knees. Yet,
underlying everything, from his
earliest recollections as a
child and all through the
greatest
moments of his success, he was
plagued by the relentless inner
demons of loneliness, despair
and fear, ultimately leading him
to the use of drugs and alcohol
to cope with it all. Eventually
he became a drug dealer.
In prison,
he was introduced to the
practice of meditation. His
experience was so profound that
it instantly changed his life.
In 1983 he
received a special commutation,
Executive Clemency, from the
Governor of New York. In 1985,
he was granted a special
opportunity for early discharge
in a "work release program."
During this time he started a
company known as Sports Vision.
All-star first baseman, Don
Mattingly, of the New York
Yankees, and Howard Johnson, the
great slugger with the New York
Mets, signed on with the company
and helped launch its incredible
early rise to success. In Alan's
typical outrageous fashion, he
headed a multi-million dollar
company by day and slept in a
jail cell at night.
He was
finally released on parole after
serving 6 years in a
maximum-security prison.
In the
late 1980’s, Alan formed a
company called Shakti
Productions, which brought
together legendary, original
artists from the 1950's. The
concerts were so well received
that Alan became affectionately
known in the music industry as
"Pop Doo-Wop." He later went on
to create “Children First for a
Better World,” an organization
that provides educational
support for children of all
grade levels to improve their
performance in school.
For
twenty-four years since his
early release from prison, Alan
has traveled across the United
States and Canada teaching
meditation to thousands; both in
and out of prisons. Alan
has taught meditation to
prisoners, prison guards and
prison staff alike and has led
numerous meditation workshops
and programs to people on the
other side of prison bars as
well. Alan spent from two
to four months on the road
during a good portion of these
years teaching meditation in
prisons and youth detention
centers strictly as a volunteer.
Alan’s
spiritual autobiography,
Maximum
Security: The True Meaning of
Freedom was published in 2008 by
Burns Park Publishers and is
available on this website
(every copy is autographed when
purchased at his website) or at
Amazon.com. In addition,
Alan recently created a
meditation CD entitled,
Maximum
Freedom: A Guide to Meditation
due to the numerous requests he
has received for detailed
guidance on establishing a daily
practice of meditation.
The CD is also available on his
website. The website lists
all of Alan’s upcoming events
and visitors can sign up for an
e newsletter which will provide
further updates regarding these
events.
2008 PASS
AWARD WINNER
Each year,
the National Council on Crime
and Delinquency honors the
people and programs that most
effectively educate America’s
citizens about the root causes
of crime. Special consideration
is given to literature that
highlights the impact of crime
on youth and inspires them to
move beyond it by becoming aware
of the greatness hidden within
them.
In 2008,
Maximum Security: The True
Meaning of Freedom was the
recipient of the respected PASS
Award. Alan has always treasured
his involvement with young
people. His programs for youth
focus on providing them with
powerful tools for mindful
awareness and transformation.
Alan gratefully acknowledges
receipt of this honor and
affirms his intention to uplift
and inspire young people
through his writings and
programs.
© 2010,
Maximum Freedom, LLC. All
rights reserved.
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Alan Gompers Bio
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