New Article About the Chase

“I designed the hunt to be difficult, but certainly not impossible,” Fenn insists. “Most searchers don’t put enough emphasis on the first clue, and without it their effort is futile.

“The poem is written in plain English words that mean exactly what they say. No need to figure pounds per square inch, head pressures, acre feet, square roots, or where true north is, to find the solution.”

Those quotes, and more, are in a new article about the Thrill of the Chase on MSN:

On the Trail of Forrest Fenn's Hidden Treasure

Imagination

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
-Albert Einstein

Imagination isn’t a technique, it’s a key. f
-Forrest Fenn

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Imagination
4.
a : a mental image, conception, or notion formed by the action of imagination
b : a creation of the mind; especially : an idealized or poetic creation

Imagination: reverie, daydream, conception, pie in the sky, speculation, fancy, cup of tea, rainbow, castle in the air, art, adroitness, idea, visualization, invention, warmth, fish story, yarn, pot boiler, Einstein, aptitude, charade, disguise, legend, lore, myth, twist, flash, contemplation, reflection

Adjusting to Solve the Poem

The blueprint is challenging so the treasure may be located by the one who can best adjust. To illustrate my point go to YouTube – Smarter Every Day. f

Adjust: 
 to put in order :  reduce to a system :  regulate

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What does “warm” mean to you?
It means being comfortable.

http://dalneitzel.com/2017/02/08/forrest-gets-mail-13/

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Comfortable:
:  enjoying or showing comfort and ease:
a :  at ease physically :  in a restful situation :  without urgent unsatisfied wants :  free from pain, irritation, stricture, or other unpleasant feelings :  relaxed

Relaxed:
:  easy of manner :  free from stiffness :  informal, easygoing

Synonyms: calm, unstressed, rested, resting, easy

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For each clue Fenn provides a wide variety of hints to help you adjust and see what he means.  He does that with specific things, and with things that he just implies.  All of the hints direct us to finding the right word, the word he wants us to use, to solve the poem.

So using warm waters halt....how does that work if warm = comfortable

If comfortable is warm, and comfortable is easy-going, and comfortable is calm, then warm waters are waters that are calm and easy going and they're going to halt being calm and easy-going.

Where do calm and easy-going waters halt?  If it's the waters we're thinking about, they halt being calm and easy-going when they change to rough and raging waters.

So where to easy-going and calm waters stop being calm and easy-going to become rough and raging waters?

That would be a place where the topography either becomes rough and rocky causing the water to become raging rapids, or when they go over a waterfall and land at the bottom with force before continuing along the creek, river or other water way.

My Two Sense

The Big Picture

Forrest Fenn has told us that the poem is a "map".

MAP:  appearance, face, globe, layout, blueprint, plan, representation, drawing, approach, scheme, prototype, outline, plan, organization, road map, big picture.

Wait, what?  BIG PICTURE?

If you look at the poem, and start at the bottom line with "I", then go to each letter around the four corners of the poem, you'll spell the word "IDEA".  Is this the "big picture" that Fenn has said we need to look at?

Big picture: Idea, encircling, approach

Decipher

In the above video, there are a few quotes worth reviewing; they begin at 10:34.

"You're not going to find the treasure unless you decipher the nine clues in the poem."

"The poem is a map and it'll take you to the treasure if you can follow its directions."

"You have to read the poem and comprehend what the clues mean."

"If you don't have the first clue, you don't have anything."

Decipher:

• convert into normal language
• convert into intelligent form
• represent by oral description or pictorial art
• unscramble
• find the key
• straighten out
• spell out
• put in plain English
• set right
• get to the bottom of
• throw light upon

Comprehend:

• grasp mentally
• see daylight
• realize
• get the picture
• imagine
• understand
• tell apart
• recognize

Once Upon A While

Here is the cover of Forrest Fenn's third memoir, Once Upon A While:

And here is the inside cover spread:

Musical Connections

Call this one a rabbit hole.  It's interesting, but still just a rabbit hole.

There are 10 octaves in the range of human hearing, which is 20hz to 20khz It doesnt go back to zero, just goes higher than humans can hear. There are 24 lines in the poem, or 2 octaves.

Maqam

Arabic maqams are based on a musical scale of 7 notes that repeats at the octave. Some maqams have 2 or more alternative scales (e.g. Rast, Nahawand and Hijaz). Maqam scales in traditional Arabic music are microtonal, not based on a twelve-tone equal-tempered musical tuning system, as is the case in modern Western music. Most maqam scales include a perfect fifth or a perfect fourth (or both), and all octaves are perfect. The remaining notes in a maqam scale may or may not exactly land on semitones. For this reason maqam scales are mostly taught orally, and by extensive listening to the traditional Arabic music repertoire.

Since microtonal intervals are impractical to accurately notate, a simplified musical notation system was adopted in Arabic music at the turn of the 20th century. Starting with a chromatic scale, the Arabic scale is divided into 24 equal quarter tones, where a quarter tone equals half a semitone in a 12 tone equal-tempered scale. In this notation system all notes in a maqam scale are rounded to the nearest quarter tone.

The 24-tone system is entirely a notational convention and does not affect the actual precise intonation of the notes performed. Practicing Arab musicians, while using the nomenclature of the 24-tone system (half-flats and half-sharps), still perform the finer microtonal details which have been passed down through oral tradition.

Maqam scales that do not include quarter tones (e.g. Nahawand, ‘Ajam) can be performed on equal-tempered instruments such as the piano, however such instruments cannot faithfully reproduce the microtonal details of the maqam scale. Maqam scales can be faithfully performed either on fretless instruments (e.g. the oud or the violin), or on instruments that allow a sufficient degree of tunability and microtonal control (e.g. the nay or the qanun, or the Clarinet). On fretted instruments with steel strings, microtonal control can be achieved by string bending, as when playing blues.

The exact intonation of every maqam scale changes with the historical period, as well as the geographical region (as is the case with linguistic accents, for example). For this reason, and because it is not common to notate precisely and accurately microtonal variations from a twelve-tone equal tempered scale, maqam scales are, in practice, learned auditorally.

The central tones (nucleus) of a maqam are created from two different intervals. The eleven central tones of the maqam used in the phase sequence example above may be reduced to three which make up the "nucleus" of the maqam.

There are nine maqam families:

Ajam
Segah
Bayātī
C minor
Rast Panjgah (means right or direct)
Hijaz, aka Phrygian Dominant Scale (aka "Spanish gypsy scale")
Saba
Kurd
Nawa Athar (aka "Hungarian Gypsy Scale")

Indulgence

Indulgence anagrams to "ending clue".

The end is the beginning, the beginning is the end.

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. 
T. S. Eliot

The last clue is also the first clue, is also the ending, but also the beginning. 

First Clue Confirmed!

Back in April 2013, Forrest Fenn was interviewed on a radio program in New Zealand.  At the time, two people had figured out the first clue, but had walked past the other seven.  In that interview, Fenn noted that the first clue IS "where warm waters halt"!

Listen here!

How the Treasure May be Hidden

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Put in below the home of Brown

Put in below the home of Brown.

One sentence, short and sweet - what is it telling us to do?  

There are a few ways to read the sentence:

"Put in___below" as a phrase "put in" then "below", telling us to do something at the "home of Brown"

"Put___in___below" as three separate words directing us to do something at the "home of Brown"

"Put in" "below" = a place located below "the home of Brown" that requires nothing more than noting the location of the "put in"

PUT = position, frame, assign, place, commit, invest, cause to undergo something, adapt, arrange, set-up, order, pose, cause to be in a certain state
IN = inch, Indiana, direction, inward, currently fashionable, to, toward, toward the inside, there
PUT IN = insert, enclose, introduce, lay aside for future use, devote time, store away, break in, install, boat ramp, entrance, set-up, submit, inject, throw in, access point

BELOW = under, beneath, at a lower level, downstairs, down, at a lower place, lower floor, under

Just...

It's amazing how many synonyms some of the words in the poem have.  Take "just" for a moment...here are some of the words to consider:

Good, holy, accurate, distinct, detailed, correct, specific, true, unmistakable, definitive, definite, exact, explicit, fair, logical, likely, justifiable, all, totally, exactly, entirely, well-suited, desired, relevant, generous, lavish, bountiful, straight forward, honest, befitting, germane, happy, balanced, proportional, symmetrical, uniform, evened, candid, objective, upfront, upright, plain, impartial, equal, blunt, fortunate, stone, rarely, flawless, pure, common, self-ruling, laid-back, aloof, cool, poker-faced, due, rightful, fitting, earned, ethical, even-handed, inspired, telling, applicable, fit, wise, worthy, fitting, not quite, with trouble, scantly, little.

So what do you think "just" means in "Just take the chest and go in peace"?

Who-Why-What-When-Where and How

Who, Why, What, Where, When and How are the basics of writing - readers want each answered throughout a story, otherwise the story is difficult to follow. The story can be fiction or non-fiction, the elements are the same where it's a mystery novel or a newspaper article.

As we read The Thrill of the Chase, we learn the "who" (Fenn), the "what" (hidden treasure), "when" (79 or 80 years old, or 2009-2010), and perhaps some "why" (he was going to die and wanted to take it with him, on his own terms).  Fenn does tell us though that he tells the truth, but not all the truth.

What the story told in the book lacks is the "where" and the "how" and the fully truthful "why" (which you'll understand why I say that when you solve it).

It seems many search diligently for the "where" but not so much on the "how" in the poem.  IMO, the "why" in the poem becomes self-evident as you solve it, so you don't have to specifically look to figure that out, just understand it when it does come to light as you solve the where and how.

And Hint of Riches New and Old

To me, this is a very interesting line in the poem.....

And     hint     of riches     new and old

And    hint of    riches    new and old

And hint     of riches     new and old

And hint of     riches     new and old

And hint of riches     new and old

where, and hint of    riches    new and old

where, and hint     of riches     new and old

And hint of    riches new and old

secret where, and hint of    riches     new and old

where, and hint of    riches new and old

Each of the above groupings of words works out to different potential meaning.....

Hint

cue, key, nod, coax, dash, help, fish, idea, look, mark, open, salt, seek, show, sign, tint, vein, wind, wink, angle, flash, gleam, infer, point, press, refer, sauce, savor, spark, taste, taint, token, touch, track, whiff, denote, gossip, naming, pepper, prompt, shadow, bid fair, caution, key word, marking, mention, pointer, promise, signify, suppose, symptom, warning, whisper, allude to, disclose, associate, inference, penetrate, symbolism, ultimatum, undertone, allegorical, disclosure, expression, foreshadow, make likely, scattering, smattering, sprinkle, etc.