This CD is a really clever idea. Returning to the Northwest, I was not bothered by the abundant rain, but had forgotten how grim the short winter days could be. Here is a CD to drive away winter (or other) gloom with imaginative, specific and effulgent light visualizations. Light imagery is of course used in many meditative and spiritual practices, and I have often noticed what a happy response my body has to these images of light. There is a spiritual (essentially New-Age) component to these meditations, but the chief emphasis is on sensation--especially visual and physical--which makes a nice contrast to some other meditations. The same is true of Jim Parks' voice, which initially gave me pause--it definitely sounds like a radio voice, but the different timbre, greater variation and more narrative tone make a nice change from more serene, more soporific voices, and support the imagery well. The narrative tone, language of the meditations, and the music are enthusiastic, direct, and rather fulsome, which I found worked well here to give a feeling of energizing immersion. The intros are pretty short, and each meditation then builds, with a quite creative storyline, to increasingly envelope the listener in warm, radiant light, ending with a nice silent space before moving to the next track. Brilliant Newborn Sun is the most realistic meditation, painting a picture, stroke by stroke, of a sun slowly rising above the dim horizon and then blazing into glory. You see all the changes of light touching the sky and feel the sun's warmth spreading through and energizing your body and spirit. In Sparkling Spa, one of my favorites, you enter a lovely, sun-drenched outdoor spa set in the rainforest, enter a serene, warm pool and soak, and then receive an all-over massage that soaks you in light and transforms you. Shower of Light likewise provides strong, detailed imagery that transforms into other sensations--drops of water become sparks of light that sparkle and stimulate your skin, then a torrent of light you can taste and swallow, light bubbles, and currents of light circulating through your body. Shaman's Fire starts out like a traditional shamanistic journey--journeying from the side of a shaman's fire outside one's body, conducted by an animal spirit guide to a forest, where you are assailed by sparks of light like fireflies. These are pieces of your soul, and when they speak, they sound a bit like one of Marley's ghosts from A Christmas Carol. You gather your missing soul pieces and swallow them, reuniting all your soul and body, and then streaming into the sky (now reminding me of some of William Blake's pictures) to join ecstatically with other spirits.