John Winston Ono Lennon was a leading figure of the Beatles, the most significant musical group of the 20th century.-John Lennon Quotes

By Stavros Balogiannis, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at the University of Thessaloniki Byzantine Ecclesiastical music is a peaceful, spiritual chanting, which aims to elevate the human soul from the earthly world to the heavenly. Invoking the spirit of peace, dispassion, tranquility, effective introspection, real insight and self-knowledge, Byzantine music, in a harmonious interweaving with the Byzantine iconography of our temples, becomes a way of purifying the psychosomatic state of man. In the human mind, which suffers from the constant interference of contemporary secular music and the aggression, restlessness, sadness, competition, dominance, demanding and inevitable impasses of contemporary society, Byzantine music is the ideal remedy for restoration of internal homeostasis and the harmonization of the higher mental processes with the spiritual aspirations and ascents of the soul. In the place of inner disharmony, which often drives human emotions into true confusion, Byzantine music is able to introduce the unique values of repentance, humility, praise, thanksgiving and gratitude, truly establishing precious inner harmony. With the existence of so many oscillations, vibrations and transitions in the psychological background of the human beings of our time, who are suffocated by the futility and the weight of constant ephemeral blissful pursuits, Byzantine music offers a secret treasure full of spiritual fragrance, contentment and exaltation, remorse, joyful-mourning, calm, peace and light. Understanding the message of Byzantine music, the human soul prepares to receive the eternal mystery of the infinite mercy and love of the Lord, the wonderful light of the Resurrection and its destination for eternity. Source: Excerpt from the article "The Philosophy of Byzantine Music from the Perspective of Neuroscience" - Proceedings of the 1st Int. Interdisciplinary Musicological Conference, 9 June-3 July 2014, Volos, Greece. Translation by John Sanidopoulos. If you enjoyed this post and would like to see others like it, please consider becoming a supporter of the Mystagogy Resource Center. Become a Patreon Supporter!

YOKO ONO IMAGINE PEACE Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace Emily Davis Gallery / Mary Schiller Myers School of Art The University of Akron 6 July - 7 September 2007 Department of Art and Art history The University of Texas at San Antonio 26 September 2007 - 28 October 2007 John & Yoko, War Is Over! 1969 © 2007 Yoko Ono " IMAGINE PEACE Yoko Ono, among the earliest of artists working in the genre known Conceptual Arts, has consistently employed the theme of peace and used the medium of advertising in her work since the early 1960s. Yoko Ono Imagine Peace Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace explores these aspects of her work over the course of more than forty years. Three recent pieces - Imagine Peace (Map) (2003/2007); Onochord (2003/2007); and Imagine Peace Tower (2006/2007) - offer gallery visitors to an opportunity to participate individually and collectively with the artist in the realization of work. Consider the world with fresh eyes as you stamp the phrase "Imagine Peace" on the location of your choice on maps provided for this purpose. Using postcards provided send your wishes to the Imagine Peace Tower in Reykjavik, where they will shine on with eternally more than 900,000 others. Or beam the message "I Love You" to one and all using the Onochord flashlights. Take a flashlight and an Imagine Peace button, the artist's gift to you, and carry the message out into the world. As Ono has often observed, "the dream you dream alone is just the dream, but the dream we dream together is reality." The exhibition continues in nine locations with Imagine Peace/Imaginate La Paz billboards across the San Antonio region. YOKO ONO IMAGINE PEACE Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace is made possible by the generosity by Bjom's Audio Video-Home Theater, Colleen Casey and Tim Maloney, Clear Channel Outdoor, Rick Liberto, Smothers Foundation, and Twin Sisters Bakery & Cafe. " " John & Yoko's Year of Peace (1969 - 70) Ono's Imagine Peace project carries conceptual and formal strategies the artist had employer from the earliest years of her career, not only in her seminal solo works, but in her collaborations with John Lennon. In 1965, she created works specifically for the advertising pages of The New York Arts Calendar. Picking up from her Instructions for Paintings, a 1962 exhibition at Tokyo's Sogetsu Art Center in which she exhibited written texts on the gallery walls designed to inspire viewers to create the described images in their minds, Ono created purely conceptual exhibitions with her Is Real Gallery works. The theme of peace is also evident in works sush as White Chess Set, recreated here as Play It By Trust (Garden Set version) (1966/2007). Lennon's songwriting during this period had shifted from more conventional themes of romantic love to grander anthems for the Flower Power generation. The Baetles' worldwide satellite broadcast of Lennon's "All You Need Is Love" in the summer of 1967 featured a parade of signs with the word "love" in multiple languages. The couple's most famous collaborative works, the Bed-Ins (1969) and the War Is Over! campaign (1969 - 1970), were conceived as elements of a large peace advertising campaign. The Bed-Ins took advantage of the inordinate amount of press attention the couple received by inviting the world press to their honeymoon suite where they talked about peace! Ono told Penthouse magazine's Charles Childs: "Many other people who are rich are using their money for something they want. They promote soap, use advertising propaganda, what have you. We intend to do the same." In December of 1969, they launched their War Is Over! campaign, a project that included billboards and posters in 11 cities of the world simply declaring "War Is Over! If You Want It. Happy Christmas from John & Yoko." As with Ono's earliest instruction pieces, viewers were invited to transform their dreams into reality. Ono has explained, "All my work is a form of wishing." " YOKO ONO: IMAGINE PEACE Featuring John & Yoko's Year of Peace September 26th - October 28th, 2007 UTSA Art Gallery / Department of Art and Art History The University of Texas at San Antonio

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