Cells are tiny, individual, living, sentient beings. Their life is dependent on the flow of energy, prana. Usually one thinks of the food eaten as the source of energy, but this is not the case in its entirety. The air is also supplying prana. The food is useless to the body without the oxygen. The food is then "burned" in the body, creating energy.

A fire is a fast and hot "explosion, which is obviously not the kind of burning that the body does. The body could be seen as a slow burning furnace. This slow burning furnace creates energy by combining food fuel (carbon) with oxygen, thus producing CO2 (carbon dioxide). In a visible fire, light is visible because the burning is so rapid. In the body’s "fire," the burning happens so slowly that light is not visible, except in the auric field displayed by Kirlian photography.

All living organisms are, in essence, slow burning furnaces, creating energy out of the burning of the food with its proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Sometimes the energy is not used in the moment that it is created, so it is stored in an energy storage molecule called and adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, and this is found throughout biological systems throughout nature.

Cell respiration is, then, a situation where nutrient fuel is burned with oxygen to release energy. The respiratory system of the body delivers the oxygen and makes it available to the cells. A change in the respiratory system, blockages, poor conditions, or pollutants covering the lungs, all of these can seriously contribute to the inability of these cells to function as tiny furnaces.