Turiya: The Fourth State of Consciousness Explained
You spend your life moving through three states: awake, dreaming, and in dreamless sleep. Indian philosophy has asked for almost three thousand years what stays the same while those three come and go. Its answer has a plain name: turiya, "the fourth." Here is what turiya means, where the idea comes from, how it connects to the syllable Om, how it reached America, and what a practice that points toward it can look like, without the hype that usually comes attached.
Contents
Turiya, Sanskrit for 'the fourth,' is the fourth state of consciousness in Vedanta: pure awareness beyond waking, dreaming and dreamless sleep that runs through all three. It comes from the Mandukya Upanishad, a twelve-verse text attached to the Atharvaveda, which also maps the sounds A, U and M of Om onto waking, dreaming and deep sleep and the silence after the syllable onto turiya. Advaita Vedanta, through Gaudapada and Shankara, identifies it with the Self, Atman. Turiya is not a trance or peak experience you produce; the tradition says it is recognized through meditation and self-inquiry, such as asking who is aware of a thought. Whether meditation creates a measurable fourth state is not established.
The Mandukya Upanishad has twelve verses and belongs to the Atharvaveda.
Source/tradition: Mandukya Upanishad, trans. Nikhilananda
Swami Vivekananda addressed the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893 and founded the Vedanta Society of New York in 1894.
Source/tradition: Vedanta Society of New York, history
Robert Keith Wallace published a paper on the physiological effects of Transcendental Meditation in Science in 1970.
Source/tradition: Science 167 (1970)
The four states map onto the sounds A, U and M of Om and the silence after them.
Source/tradition: Mandukya Upanishad, verses 8–12
Recognizing turiya is the recognition that Atman and Brahman are one.
Source/tradition: Advaita Vedanta, Gaudapada and Shankara
Self-inquiry, asking 'Who am I?', and chanting AUM are used to approach the fourth state.
Source/tradition: Ramana Maharshi and Vedanta practice
Meditation produces a physiologically distinct fourth state of consciousness.
Source/tradition: Research results are mixed
VERIFIED = verifiable in scientific or official sources · TRADITIONAL = historically or culturally recorded · LIVED PRACTICE = widely practiced, experiential knowledge · NOT PROVEN = spiritual interpretation, not scientifically established.
What is turiya?
Turiya is, in Vedanta, the fourth state of consciousness: pure awareness beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep, which runs through all three and carries them. It is not a fourth experience next to the others but the unchanging background against which they appear. In waking, dreaming and sleep the contents change; the awareness stays. Turiya is that awareness itself: without form, without boundary, without a split between subject and object. It is often identified with the deepest Self, the Atman.
The four states of consciousness
The source of the idea is the Mandukya Upanishad, the shortest of the principal Upanishads, only twelve verses long and attached to the Atharvaveda. It describes three ordinary states and a fourth.
| State | Sanskrit | What you experience | Name of the "self" in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Waking | jagrat | The outer world, through the senses | Vaishvanara |
| Dreaming | svapna | Images the mind makes by itself | Taijasa, "the shining one" |
| Dreamless sleep | sushupti | No objects at all; rest | Prajna, "the knower" |
| The fourth | turiya | Not an experience with contents, but the awareness in which the other three appear | Atman, the Self |
Verse 7 describes the fourth mostly by what it is not: not turned inward, not turned outward, not a mass of knowing, unseen, beyond grasping, and finally "peaceful, benign, non-dual." The text itself uses the ordinary word for "fourth"; the technical name turiya became standard through the commentary tradition. The older Brihadaranyaka Upanishad had already explored dreams and deep sleep in the dialogue between the sage Yajnavalkya and King Janaka, which is why the Mandukya reads like a condensed map of a long conversation.
What turiya means, and what it does not
Literally, turiya just means "the fourth." That modest name is part of the teaching. It is not a higher floor you climb to, and not a trance you enter and leave. It is what is already present while you wake, dream and sleep. The contents change; the knowing does not.
That also rules out several popular misreadings. Turiya is not a peak experience, not an altered state you can induce on demand, and not deep sleep. In deep sleep there are no objects, but there is also no clear knowing of that absence. Turiya is described as fully awake, only without contents. Some later texts go one step further and speak of turiyatita, "beyond the fourth," for the state in which even the idea of a fourth drops away.
Turiya and Om: the silence after the sound
The Mandukya Upanishad links the four states with the sound of the sacred syllable Om, written AUM. The A stands for waking, the U for dreaming, the M for deep sleep, and the silence that follows when the sound fades stands for turiya. The text calls that fourth part "without measure": it has no sound of its own.
If you chant AUM slowly, you can notice that silence at the end on purpose: the moment the sound has died away and an alert awareness is still there. The tradition treats that moment as a foretaste of the fourth state, not as the thing itself. It is also the easiest doorway for a beginner, because it asks for nothing but a sound and some attention.
One stick, one sitting
Jyotisha Celestial Incense Holder
Many people who sit with AUM use a single stick of incense as a quiet timer: when it is gone, the sitting is over, and nobody has to look at a phone. This round mango-wood dish, handcrafted in north central India with a brass constellation inlay, holds one stick at its center and catches the ash. It will not bring you to the fourth state and it has no powers. It just keeps the clock out of the room. $20.99
See the holder →Turiya in Advaita Vedanta and yoga
The most influential reading of the Mandukya comes from Advaita, the non-dual school of Vedanta. Gaudapada, the teacher of Shankara's teacher, wrote a verse commentary on it, the Mandukya Karika, usually dated to around the sixth century, and Shankara commented on both in the eighth. For Advaita, recognizing turiya is the same as recognizing that the individual Self and the absolute, Brahman, are one.
Yoga has related terms, above all samadhi, the state of deepest absorption described in Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. The two are not identical: samadhi is usually described as something attained in practice, while turiya is taught as something that was never absent. What they share is the direction. In both, turiya is recognized by letting go, not by effort. The less the mind clings to thoughts, the more clearly the quiet background shows.
How the fourth state came to America
The idea reached the US in three waves, and each changed it a little.
1893: Vivekananda in Chicago. Swami Vivekananda's address to the World's Parliament of Religions in September 1893 introduced Vedanta to a large American audience. He founded the Vedanta Society of New York in 1894, and the Vedanta Society of Southern California later drew writers such as Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood.
The 1930s onward: Ramana Maharshi. The South Indian sage Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) taught a single method, self-inquiry: asking "Who am I?" until the question turns back on the one asking. The British writer Paul Brunton made him famous in the West with A Search in Secret India (1934), and his approach runs through much of today's American non-duality scene.
The 1960s and 70s: Transcendental Meditation. Maharishi Mahesh Yogi presented TM's "transcendental consciousness" as a fourth major state alongside waking, dreaming and sleeping. In 1970 the physiologist Robert Keith Wallace published a paper in Science reporting changes in oxygen use and skin resistance during TM. Later research has been much more mixed, and whether meditation produces a physiologically distinct "fourth state" is not established. That is worth knowing, because many modern claims about turiya lean on those early results.
How to approach turiya in practice
Turiya cannot be produced, because it is not an event that starts and stops. The classical paths are about recognizing it as what was already there: meditation and self-inquiry, atma vichara. Instead of identifying with thoughts, you turn attention toward the awareness in which thoughts appear. Over time the quiet space between thoughts becomes more familiar. A broader overview of methods is in our guide to the four families of meditation.
A simple exercise. Sit upright and comfortable. Close your eyes and watch your breath without steering it. When a thought appears, ask inwardly: who is aware of this thought? Rest in the stillness that follows the question. A steady focal point, such as a candle flame or the fading sound of a slowly chanted AUM, can help. Start with ten minutes.
Watch the edges of sleep. The moments just before falling asleep and just after waking are where the tradition says the states are easiest to tell apart. Notice what remains as one state gives way to the next. People who practice lucid dreaming will recognize the territory, though the goal is different: not to steer the dream, but to notice the awareness that holds it.
Take it into the day. Knowing about turiya already changes how ordinary life looks. If you sense that behind all the shifting feelings there is a calm awareness, you react more calmly to stress. Hard emotions lose some of their power once you see: I am not the storm, I am the sky the storm passes through.
Common misunderstandings
Turiya is sometimes confused with an extraordinary, ecstatic experience that special techniques can force. That is exactly what it is not. It is not something spectacular that gets added; it is the plainest thing there is, the awareness reading this sentence right now. It is not far away but closer than any thought. For a seeking mind, accepting that plainness is often harder than any complicated practice.
A second misunderstanding treats turiya as a reward for intense breathwork or energy practices. Some of those practices carry real risks for some people; if you are drawn to them, read our notes on pranayama safety and Kundalini Yoga first. Nothing in the Mandukya requires them.
What we do not promise
We do not claim that a practice will bring you to turiya, that it is measurable, or that reaching it changes your health. The four states and their mapping onto AUM are teachings of a religious and philosophical tradition, and we present them as such. Meditation can help many people feel calmer, but it is not a treatment. If you struggle with sleep, anxiety or dissociation, a doctor or therapist is the right first step, and very long or intense retreats are not advisable without guidance.
Frequently asked questions
What is turiya?
The fourth state of consciousness in Indian philosophy: pure awareness beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep, which runs through those three states.
Where does the idea of turiya come from?
From the Mandukya Upanishad, a twelve-verse text attached to the Atharvaveda, and from its commentaries by Gaudapada and Shankara in the Advaita Vedanta tradition.
How can you experience turiya?
The tradition says you do not produce it but recognize it, through meditation and self-inquiry: turning attention to the awareness in which all experiences appear.
Is turiya the same as deep sleep?
No. In deep sleep there are no objects and no clear knowing. Turiya is described as alert, clear awareness itself, without contents but fully present.
What does turiya have to do with Om?
In the Mandukya Upanishad the sounds A, U and M stand for waking, dreaming and deep sleep, and the silence after the syllable stands for turiya.
Is turiya the same as samadhi?
They are related but not identical. Samadhi in the Yoga Sutras is a state of absorption reached in practice; turiya is taught as the ever-present background that was never absent.
Sources & further reading
Mandukya Upanishad, verses 1–12, with Gaudapada's Karika and Shankara's commentary, trans. Swami Nikhilananda (Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York) · Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.3 (Yajnavalkya and Janaka on dream and sleep) · Patanjali, Yoga Sutras 1.41–51 on samadhi · Swami Vivekananda, addresses at the World's Parliament of Religions, Chicago, 1893 · Paul Brunton, A Search in Secret India (1934) · Wallace, R. K., "Physiological Effects of Transcendental Meditation," Science 167 (1970) · National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, "Meditation and Mindfulness: What You Need to Know."
Questions about an order or anything on this site: 28@templeofdesire.com.
