Forrest Says: This Guy is a Thinker

[Jenny]

I received another email from Forrest mentioning 'Smell the Sunshine'.... with the note 'This guy is a thinker'.....

[goldilocks]

Hmmm he is but so are a lot of searchers so what exactly does he want us all to hear? Maybe it’s that Sunshine’s summaries are nothing over the top, just clear concise thoughtful interpretations.

[brianu]

It seems really focused on the book and it's construction. I wonder maybe if smell the sunshine is a college thesis on Fenn writings. I did learn some knew stuff though, and it was well spoken.

[harrytruman]

These are very impressive videos -- among the best that have been produced on the chase, I think.

Still, I conducted my own analysis along these very lines about two years ago, shortly after I started searching. The chapter groupings seemed fairly obvious to me, as did the persona he adopts in "Important Literature," the evolution of his perspective and voice, etc.

I'm not trying to brag. My point is this: textual analysis is not the real challenge. I think the real challenge lies in identifying the handful of hints, interpreting the nine clues (through the right mix of logic and imagination), marrying the clues to locations on a map, and persevering to and through BOTG searches.

[goldilocks]

Could this be an inside job? The more I think about it Sunshine sounds too professional. Promoting him once ok, but twice, really?? Is it possible that he was “hired” to redirect us? Just a theory...

[me9]

5)I read your poem but don’t know where the treasure is. What should I do?
Read the poem a few more times and start thinking better.

mysteriouswritings.com/featured-questions-and-answers-on-the-thrill-of-the-chase-treasure-hunt-with-forrest-fenn-%ef%bb%bf/

[Jenny]

Mar 29, 2020 19:35:23 GMT -5 me9 said:

5)I read your poem but don’t know where the treasure is. What should I do?
Read the poem a few more times and start thinking better.

mysteriouswritings.com/featured-questions-and-answers-on-the-thrill-of-the-chase-treasure-hunt-with-forrest-fenn-%ef%bb%bf/

[me9]

Mr. Fenn,

I am not even close to solving your riddle. I’ve tried for months and nothing works. I am not asking for a clue to the treasure, I’m asking for a clue to the clues. Please help me. ~Mary.

Dear Mz. Mary,
The solve is difficult for many searchers because their minds think the clues are tougher to decrypt than they really are.

Some say they are trying to think outside the box, as if the solution lies somewhere out there.

Until now I have resisted telling them to get back in the box where their thoughts are comfortable and flow more easily.

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

mysteriouswritings.com/featured-question-and-weekly-words-from-forrest-fenn-get-back-in-the-box/

[van]

For a person who says that focusing on the poem is the most important aspect of the chase, he seems to have spent a considerable amount of time focused on the book and FF history.

[harrytruman]

Mar 29, 2020 19:21:19 GMT -5 goldilocks said:

Could this be an inside job? The more I think about it Sunshine sounds too professional. Promoting him once ok, but twice, really?? Is it possible that he was “hired” to redirect us? Just a theory...

That doesn't sound plausible to me, but have you looked at the curated playlists on his channel?

He's doing a lot of Youtube-based research (and saving a lot of obscure videos), which seems...surprising (like if Tony Fauci had bookmarked a hundred Wikipedia pages on various viruses and epidemics).

[zaphod73491]

He shares some analytical skills in common with MEH--another Fenn searcher whom Forrest felt compelled to mention last year. The collective message ~may~ be that both men are attacking the problem in ways that Forrest thinks could be fruitful.

Forrest has poo-pooed strategies based on "hunches" and has seemingly suggested that insufficient logic is being applied to the problem. Even his "Get back in the box" suggests that too many searchers are venturing way off the reservation into the weeds: too much imagination, and not enough critical analysis.

[voxpops]

It seems like Forrest is using Smell the Sunshine's analysis as a way to gradually pull back the veil on his thinking behind the Chase - and by extension on where the authentic FF can be found. IMO, it is experience and what we learn from it that is at the heart of this hunt.

But to address Zap's point about imagination vs logic, I would agree that logical analysis is an absolutely essential component, but I would also suggest that only by flying high in our imagination can we see the faint outline of the trails we need to follow. As for hunches, I think there is a good reason for Forrest to "poo-poo" them. All of us, without exception, have so far based our searches on hunches, as none of us has anything to go on other than our interpretation of the poem (and/or ATFs). In order to move with confidence we must surely need hard evidence. You can't win a court case without proof; why should the Chase be any different?

[Deleted]

Mar 30, 2020 0:32:28 GMT -5 zaphod73491 said:

He shares some analytical skills in common with MEH--another Fenn searcher whom Forrest felt compelled to mention last year. The collective message ~may~ be that both men are attacking the problem in ways that Forrest thinks could be fruitful.

Forrest has poo-pooed strategies based on "hunches" and has seemingly suggested that insufficient logic is being applied to the problem. Even his "Get back in the box" suggests that too many searchers are venturing way off the reservation into the weeds: too much imagination, and not enough critical analysis.

IMO, several of the clues are in fact just that. Imagination. But not imagination in the form of making things out of what they are not. When a child looks at a mountain, they may see outlines that we do not see. They see animals and other things that we once could see. Adulthood has hindered this viewpoint that we need and this is one of the reasons the chest hasn't been found. I do agree logic and common sense plays a huge part, but it is the geological formations that are within the poem that most cannot visualize. One of the poems imaginations is the word meek. The two antonyms in the poem for "meek" are bold & brave. If you are meek, you are chicken. And we all certainly know that in every book, Forrest talks of chickens.

[voxpops]

Headless chickens?

[me9]

It seems logical to me that a deep thinking treasure searcher could use logic to determine an important clue to the location of the treasure. Is someone doing that now and I don’t know it? It’s not what they say on the blogs that may be significant, it’s what they whisper. f

dalneitzel.com/2014/04/23/scrapbook-sixty_one-2/