It's the period of rest where rejuvenation and healing take place. Sleep is simply a naturally existing state of consciousness that should come in its own proper cycle day after day, year after year. Living in harmony with natural rhythms allows a free passage of biological information and intelligence, while living in opposition to those rhythms fosters disorder at the molecular level and discomfort at the level of everyday experience.

In short, our lives have gotten out of balance with nature's rhythm - and sleep is most definitely one of those rhythmic cycles. When darkness falls, it's a simple matter to switch on the lights and keep working. Almost no one works in the fields anymore, having moved inside to offices of concrete, steel, and glass, where the windows don't open and hot or cold air is pumped in. (This is an extremely significant development, of which you'll learn more in this part.) We get up and go to bed by the clock, not by the sun. Once you break free of the artifical imperatives of modern life and reestablish balance on the level of the quantum mechanical body, it's inevitable that sleep and all other physical functions will improve. It motivates me to keep going! I frequently listen to it when I'm on the treadmill, and it is very relaxing and inspiring. One of my favorites is her program for weight loss, which you can get on audiotape or CD. I am a devoted fan of Naparstek's excellent series of guided imagery health programs. Guided imagery - according to the nation's leading guided imagery expert, therapist Belleruth Naparstek, your brain doesn't know the difference between something you actually see and something you imagine. Obviously, all that is very different now. And women's lives, by and large, were governed by the requirements of their husbands. A farmer worked in the fields until darkness fell, then he went home.

Once our activities, especially our daily labors, were measured by the rising and setting of the sun. In order to understand this, consider how far our contemporary way of life has taken us from the natural rhythms that governed human experience until surprisingly recently. How does this influence the sleep patterns of any individual?

The lunar month influences us through tidal rhythms because it's the same intelligence operating everywhere. Other cycles also influence us. "It may be to increase brain chemicals that make you feel calm and centered, decrease hormones that make you hungry, change the levels of biochemical components in your bloodstream that affect blood sugar, even build more immune system cells to fight everything from cancer to the common cold." Na-parstek has told Prevention magazine that guided imagery helps you "get in under your mind's radar" so that you can persuade your body to do something.