Turiya: The 4th State of Consciousness

Last summer I got to meet and hang out with Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, at my good friend Iva Nasr’s Rifles to Roses book launch. I had just started reading Eat, Pray, Love, and got Liz to sign my copy. Since then I have read the whole book, which I thoroughly enjoyed!

I was intrigued by Liz’s description of the 4 states of consciousness in Indian culture: waking, sleeping while dreaming, sleeping without dreaming, and Turiya, the state that not only transmits your dreams to your conscious mind, but also the ecstatic condition reached by Yogis in meditation. And it is believed that the truly great Gurus live in a constant state of ecstasy! I think perhaps I reached Turiya as I wrote this song, for often when I was writing it and playing through it I got completely lost in an ecstatic zone, where I completely lost track of time and space.

Then Chip Reardin and Dave Weber and I really had fun recording it and producing it at Airtime Studios, in Bloomington, Indiana.

On the CD cover is my six-year-old piano student, Charlotte. Before her lesson, when her mother says, “OK Charlotte, time to focus!”, she often sits down on the piano bench, and strikes a meditation pose. So we found a picturesque spot in their back yard and snapped this photo of her in a state of Turiya!

The song Turiya is available on CDBaby and will soon be on iTunes. You can also listen to it on YouTube.

And if you haven’t already, I would highly recommend reading both Eat, Pray, Love and Rifles to Roses! Both books are classics which have had various far-reaching effects on my life. Thanks, Liz, for inspiring me to write this song, and thanks, Iva, for introducing me to Liz!

Turiya

Music and Lyrics by
Timothy Reed

Piano, Keyboards, Mellotron, and Lead Vocal by
Timothy Reed

Engineered by Chip Reardin and David Weber
Mastered by Chip Reardin
Produced by Chip Reardin and Timothy Reed
At Airtime Studios in Bloomington, Indiana