It’s hard to imagine growing up with John Lennon and Yoko Ono as parents. But an expansive new box set that revisits Lennon’s 1973 album Mind games offers a fascinating look at the everyday life of a household run by two cultural titans.
The project was overseen by the couple’s only son, Sean Ono Lennon, who took over management of his family’s artistic legacy after Ono’s retirement from public life. Part fine art, part time capsule, the Ultimate Collection Super Deluxe limited edition box set boasts revelatory remixes produced by Sean himself, plus a treasure trove of puzzles, maps, replica artwork and coffee table books — all contained in a 40-pound , 13-inch cube.
The effect of the huge package is almost comical. For Sean, that’s partly the point. “I feel like everything my dad did had humor in it,” the 49-year-old tells PEOPLE. “People who grew up with him in Liverpool say he was the kind of guy who would crack a joke even in very difficult times. So humor was an important factor in this [project]. The initial concept for me was ‘mind games’. What are mind games? It’s mind games! So I thought we’d play with people’s minds a little. We have illusions inside, we have some games, we have some hidden secret things. It has multiple layers.”
Yoko One, Sean Ono Lennon and John Lennon in 1977.
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Many of the items contained in the set are items he remembers seeing around the family home, reflecting his parents’ unique worldview: palmistry prints, I Ching coins and astrological charts. “There are various things that reflect the way they were thinking at the time – which it was very cosmic, to say the least.”
Arguably the most innovative aspect of the Super Deluxe set are the nine “meditation blends”. Mind games songs that put the listener in a relaxed trance-like state through the use of binaural beats. The songs are designed to be heard while using Lumenate, an app that uses smartphone flashlights to flash in recognizable patterns to neurologically put users into an altered state of consciousness.
This practice may sound cutting edge, but it’s something Sean has known since childhood. “I grew up with these strobe glasses that I would strap on my head that flashed these different alpha waves,” he explains. “They were in my mom and dad’s bedroom — they used to meditate with those glasses. So the Lumenate app is actually directly connected to John and Yoko because it’s something they did.”
The collection itself is housed in a replica of a minimalist sculpture that Ono originally created in 1966: a transparent Plexiglas cube called the “Danger Box.” The piece is marked with a plate above the small hole. Another panel below is engraved with a humorously ominous piece of advice: Warning: Management does not guarantee that a hand placed in this hole will come out in the same condition as before entering. Sean remembers taking that notice very seriously as a child. “We had [a Danger Box] at home. It’s just a Plexiglas box that you stick your hand in, but I was kind of afraid it might turn into something like a monkey’s hand or something!”
Some fans are confused as to why a project revisiting a John Lennon album should be set in one of Ono’s artworks. It was a very deliberate choice by Sean — who worked as creative director, alongside art director Simon Hilton — to illustrate his status as John’s full-time creative collaborator. Even “Imagine”—probably his best-known song—was based on concepts found in Ono’s 1964 book. Grapefruit, a series of educational songs. “The idea of ’imagine this, imagine that’ — that’s Yoko’s idea. If you read Grapefruita lot of those pieces start with ‘imagine this’ or “‘imagine that,’ right? My dad admitted that. [In 2017 she was belatedly awarded a co-writing credit.] His whole life and art was infused with his relationship with my mom, so I think it’s fitting to wrap the whole set in the Danger Box.”
He says he is still a devoted follower of tarot, astrology and numerology. “She’s deep into the cosmic stuff, to a level I’ve never seen in anyone else. You could argue that she is a good witch,” she laughs. “I was brought up with so much cosmic woo-woo stuff that I rebelled against it. I was more interested in science and rational thinking. Growing up, I felt like everything was always about numbers and calculating dates for astrology. [I’d say] “Mom, can we just do something without worrying about what the tarot cards say?!”
Different perspectives led to some philosophical discussions between mother and son. “I talked to her a few years ago. I said, ‘Mom, I don’t believe the universe can work this way! There’s no way the number of anything matters, whether it’s seven or nine.” And she said: ‘But that is the way he does it…’”
Despite his tendency to think mundanely, Sean says he still feels drawn to the mystical. He describes it as his version of Catholic guilt. “No matter how much I try to reject what I would call supernatural thinking – or superstitious thinking – I cannot shake it out of my being. I still worry when there are coincidences or if I see the ‘wrong’ number on a hotel room. No matter how rational he pretends to be, I still have it in me. Maybe it’s genetic, or maybe it’s just because I was raised that way. But the truth is, I secretly kind of believe that all these things could be real.”
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Yoko Ono and Sean Ono Lennon in 1980. AP photo
Given her unorthodox worldview, you’d be forgiven for thinking Ono — whose picture should, by all rights, be the featured photo on Wikipedia’s “iconoclast” page — was an ultra-bohemian free-range parent. Not so, says Sean. When asked if he ever made the law a difficult household, he replied with an emphatic “Oh my God, yes!” followed by a long laugh from a man who had obviously seen a motherly scolding or two. “I mean, my mom is very powerful. She was always very clear about her opinion, let’s put it that way. But to be honest, over time I realized how right she was about so many things as I grew up. I think that when you are a child you resent your parents for so many little things. And as you get older, you learn (if you’re lucky) to appreciate them more.”
One of the most valuable lessons he learned from his mother is about the confidence to create. “She showed me that art is conceptual,” he says, “That influenced me the most. The essence of conceptual art is that it doesn’t matter what medium you express yourself in because it starts in your mind.” It was a lesson learned by example, as Ono turned to painting, writing, recording, sculpture and performance – anything that served an idea or an emotion. Sean’s approach to art is equally limitless. “For better or for worse, I made movies, I made oil paintings, I made rock records. I even recorded a jazz record this year. So, for what it’s worth, my philosophy on creativity comes entirely from Yoko’s ‘art is conceptual’ mentality. The medium is secondary.”
Over the years, Sean began to warm to his mother’s metaphysical approach to life – and beyond. “I try to be rational and scientific in my worldview, but sometimes things happen that are beyond the scope of what can be known.”
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He’s still trying to sort out an incident that happened during a vacation in Jamaica, when his father — who died in 1980, when Sean was 5 — visited him cosmically. Sean turned the key in his rental Jeep, only to hear a familiar voice speaking over the radio. “As soon as it comes on, I hear ‘Dear, dear, dear… dear Sean.’” It was a fade-out of “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy),” the tropical-tinged lullaby John had recorded for him months before his death. “It was so weird. Just say my name once, at the very end of the song. What are the chances? I will never forget it. I’m struggling with my own superstition again. Obviously I admit it’s probably not magical…but it really felt like it was.”
For more from Sean Ono Lennon, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands now.
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Source: HIS Education