Tips for Newbies

Everyone was new to these puzzles once upon a time, and for me it wasn’t that long ago. Here are a few resources that I found extremely helpful. 

1. Overviews: The best way to come up to speed on these puzzles is the Secret Podcast hosted primarily by George Ward and the late John Michaels. The first twelve episodes do a great job of describing the basic details for each puzzle. The show is informative and entertaining, particularly when Michaels and Ward argue! 

2. Image/Poem/City Matching: The website thesecret.pbworks.com, in a well organized fashion, presents and explains the generally accepted matchings between images, poems, and cities. I completely agree with these matchings and highly recommend reviewing the rationale for each. 

3. Composite Images: There are high definition images available on the website 12treasures.com that are the digital combination of several versions of each image. Source images are taken from different language versions or book editions. The resulting images are strikingly detailed. Though you have to keep in mind that these images are digitally altered, I highly recommend you check them out. 

4. Image Analyses: The website thesecret.pbworks.com analyzes each image using a grid method. Hidden symbols and other details are carefully documented. This is, of course, not the last word regarding what’s present in each image, but it is the first! This is a great resource to help you in analyzing an image. I’m particularly bad at finding symbols in cracks, so I found this detailed analysis very useful. 

5. Poem Analyses: thesecret.pbworks.com also has interpretations of each poem. Obviously, they are not completely correct. However, they contain some valuable insights and are worth reviewing, keeping in mind that these are, like the book you’re now reading, the opinions of just one person. 

6. Japanese Version Hint Translations: Full Translations of the hints contained in the Japanese version of Byron’s book can be found at 12treasures.com. I was very skeptical of these at first. Some seem like ramblings, some are vague, and some seem to make no sense at all. That being said, as I was able, over time, to successfully apply each to my interpretations, I now have complete confidence in them. As you review them, do bear in mind that these are translations from English to Japanese and back again!

7. Social Media: Social media is an excellent way to learn about the puzzles and get someone else’s opinion on your ideas. However, it is also not known for being a bastion of restraint and kindness. Be prepared for your ideas to be attacked, aggressively. Listen to what they have to say, but don’t take it personally. Always keep in mind that these “experts” haven’t figured out these puzzles either. Some of the best ideas I’ve ever read on social media came from “newbies” and were met with great ridicule. If you are concerned about harsh responses, you may want to individually message one or two users, giving you a preview of the kind of responses you might expect from the general community. 

L Sits

 

L sits and left

Beyond his shoulder

Is the Fair Folks'

Treasure holder 

As with all movements, we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us (“Beyond his shoulder”). The history of the Disability Rights Movement unsurprisingly starts with Abraham Lincoln. In 1864, President Lincoln signed a bill into law that allowed the Columbia Institution for the Instruction of the Deaf, Dumb and Blind in Washington D.C. to confer college degrees (now known as Gallaudet College). The words “L sits,” though, has another meaning relating directly to the 504 Sit-in.  

L= Lomax 

Within a couple days, all of the sit-ins across the country began to fail. The participants stayed as long as they could, but food and specific care requirements began to force them to go home, except in San Francisco. And this was due primarily to one man, Bradley Lomax.

Bradley Lomax (1950-1984), a Civil Rights leader and disability rights activist, successfully united these two movements in the fight for equality. The following is as stated by The Center for Learner Equity:

Diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in his teens, Lomax founded the Washington, D.C. chapter of the Black Panther Party (BPP) and organized the first African Liberation Day demonstration in 1972. A move to Oakland, California, where Lomax was unable to access public buses without being physically lifted onto them, launched his participation in the disability rights movement.

In 1975, Lomax worked with Ed Roberts, the founder of the Center for Independent Living (CIL) in Berkeley, to open another CIL site in East Oakland with support from the BPP. His activism led to increased awareness within the BPP of the disability rights movement, making him the cornerstone of a partnership built on solidarity. 

When, in 1977, disability rights activists staged a sit-in in San Francisco’s federal office building to urge the government to implement Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Lomax was there. Alongside his fellow activists, he camped out in the building for three weeks despite the government’s decision to shut off the building’s water supply and phone lines. 

When Lomax urged the local BPP to help, they quickly mobilized, delivering food and essential supplies to the protesters throughout the sit-in. According to other protesters, the sit-in would have quickly fizzled out without this assistance.

The Black Panthers [publicized] the events extensively, drawing further attention to the cause—and they covered Lomax’s costs to travel to Washington, D.C. to put further pressure on the government. Their efforts succeeded, and Section 504 was signed into law on April 28, 1977.

You could say that the folks participating in the protest in San Francisco became a fixture in that building! It is worth noting that members of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco also brought food, clean clothes, and tended to the special needs of the protesters.

Though this is not part of the puzzle, it’s worth mentioning that after years of hard work, in 1990, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was passed, ensuring equal treatment and equal access for people with disabilities regarding employment opportunities and public accommodations. This brought the rights of the disabled to the private sector and disabled persons into mainstream society. If you want to learn more about the Disability Rights Movement, there’s a stellar Netflix documentary called Crip Camp that will put things in perspective. 

On the surface, it may seem crazy to hide a puzzle within a puzzle that has no tangible reward. But at the time I’m writing this, I’m laid up recovering from knee surgery, so it makes perfect sense to me. This is a way for someone who is unable to visit a dig site to participate, a means of making the most difficult part of these puzzles accessible to everyone.

The Bowman

Frank Bowe was born in Danville, Pennsylvania on March 29, 1947. When Frank was three years old, he became critically ill with measles and was given the antibiotic streptomycin, which is probably why he became Deaf. In 1976, Frank received his Ph.D from New York University.

In 1977, Dr. Bowe led a number of protests throughout the United States. These protests focused attention on the plight of the handicapped and forced the implementation of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Bowe was the main impetus for the Disability Rights Movement. In 1978, Bowe published his first book, Handicapping America: Barriers to Disabled People. 

Bowe contended that it makes more sense to accommodate disabilities rather than to try to “fix” them, a lofty and elusive goal. He wanted society to be fixed so as to allow people with disabilities to become part of it, to accommodate rather than reject. The disabled community didn’t want to be tucked away, they wanted to be included. It was an expensive solution, but fair and practical in that it enabled disabled individuals to contribute to society and pay taxes.

In the words of Corbett Joan O’Toole, a 504 Sit-In participant, author, and disability rights advocate, “At that time in history, there was simply no access—no right to an education, no public transit. You couldn’t get into a library or city hall, much less a courtroom.” 

During the 504 Sit-In People across the country protested inside and outside the federal offices of Health, Education, and Welfare. Cities with sit-ins included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Philadelphia, New York, Seattle, Washington, and San Francisco. 

A sit-in is challenging for anyone, but these protesters had special needs and they quickly ran into problems. Food, clothing, and personal hygiene were all complicated. The participants found creative ways to clothe, bathe and feed each other. Restrooms were a problem because back then none were wheelchair accessible. Some people required space for walking aids and wheelchairs. Deaf occupiers needed translators. Paraplegic and quadriplegic protesters needed assistants to lift and turn them when sleeping and sitting.

Scattergram Logic

When in doubt, graph it out.

—My Calculus Professor 

Many of the clues in these puzzles are subtle, a fleeting glance, a whisper in the wind. In the face of such rampant vagary, how can we possibly draw firm conclusions? We can do so, conceptually, with a scattergram, which is really just a graph with a bunch of data points on it. The idea is that if we collect enough data points, we can look for patterns and, maybe, draw conclusions. 

A classic example of the use of scattergrams is in the characterization of the life stages of stars. We can’t watch a star go through all of its life stages. It could take billions of years to do so. However, if we collect enough data points for enough stars, then we can look for patterns and draw conclusions. As it turns out, the life stages of stars, evident in their color and luminosity, vary dramatically in predictable ways depending on their mass. Though we are only looking at a snapshot in time, we can, with complete certainty and in great detail, describe all of the life stages of stars of any mass, all because of many detailed observations and the use of scattergrams. 

Let’s see if we have enough data points to apply scattergram logic to the Chicago puzzle. The individuals we’ve identified include Mozart, Beethoven, FDR, and Lincoln. Do you see any pattern among these men? Is there something that ties them all together? Something they all have in common? If you don’t see it but would like to figure it out yourself, take a break and do a little research on these four men. See if you can find the pattern. 

To say that Byron Preiss was a genius is an understatement. How he came up with these puzzles in just three years is baffling. Let’s start with Beethoven and FDR. Besides excelling in their respective fields, these two possessed what most would consider to be a disability. Beethoven lost his hearing and Roosevelt lost the normal use of his legs. Beethoven began to lose his hearing around age 28 and lost it completely by age 45. Franklin Delano Roosevelt contracted polio at age 39. His long term symptoms included lower body and facial paralysis, bowel and bladder dysfunction, and numbness. He spent years in various therapies so as to regain some of the function he had lost. 

Amadeus Mozart would, in our modern era, most likely be diagnosed with one or more of the following: dyslexia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and Tourette syndrome. Here’s a firsthand account by Karoline von Greiner Pichler, an Austrian novelist and former student of Mozart, describing her teacher in her 1843 memoirs:

One day when I was sitting at the pianoforte [piano] playing the ‘Non più andrai’ from [The Marriage of] Figaro, Mozart, who was paying a visit to us, came up behind me.

I must have been playing it to his satisfaction, for he hummed the melody as I played and beat the time on my shoulders; but then he suddenly moved a chair up, sat down, told me to carry on playing the bass, and began to improvise such wonderfully beautiful variations that everyone listened to the tones of the German Orpheus with bated breath.

But then he suddenly tired of it, jumped up, and, in the mad mood which so often came over him, he began to leap over tables and chairs, miaow like a cat, and turn somersaults like an unruly boy.

Lincoln too was different. Ever since the syndrome was first described in 1955, many have speculated that Lincoln had a rare and debilitating genetic disorder called Marfan syndrome. A 2009 DNA test along with other evidence suggest that Abraham Lincoln actually had a disorder similar to Marfan Syndrome, most likely Multiple Endocrine Neoplasia, Type 2B (MEN 2B). This was likely responsible for his mother’s early death (cancer is common with this disorder). This explains why he was unusually tall and lanky, had very long feet and hands, had an unusual facial structure, and suffered from chronic headaches. 

All four of these famous individuals (including two presidents) had disabilities. I was shocked to learn that many US Presidents are thought to have had disabilities:

• George Washington (dyslexia)

• Thomas Jefferson (stuttering and dyslexia)

• James Madison (epilepsy)

• Abraham Lincoln (MEN 2B)

• Woodrow Wilson (dyslexia)

• Franklin Delano Roosevelt (paralysis)

• Dwight D. Eisenhower (learning disability)

• John F. Kennedy (learning disability, chronic back pain)

• Joe Biden (stuttering)

I actually found these Presidential limitations personally inspiring. I am a horrible speller and have never been a strong reader. I suspect that I too have some flavor of dyslexia. It is important to keep in mind when we are in the role of parent, teacher, supervisor, or mentor that having a disability does not preclude a person from greatness. 

When I was a junior in high school I had an English teacher that didn’t think much of me. My first paper came back with red ink all over it, primarily due to spelling errors. It was an analysis of an obscure short story by Mark Twain satirizing the Christian religion. There were two consecutive words circled together that I knew were spelled correctly because I’d looked them up. They were, “obvious dilemma.” I went up to the teacher after class for an explanation, and the exchange went something like this:

“Hi. I understand the rest, but why are these two words circled?”

“I don’t think you wrote them.”

[Uncomfortable pause as I came to realize she was accusing me of plagiarism and why.]

“Do you think I don’t know what they mean?”

“Yes.”

[Another uncomfortable pause.] 

“Do you want me to define them for you?”

“Yes.”

“Obvious: blatant, self-evident. Dilemma: conundrum, predicament.”

She never accused me of plagiarism again. However, I got the sense that she still thought me stupid and that I must have just gotten lucky. Clearly this encounter made a lasting impression on me, and if I had let it, a very negative one. 

I’ve found that there are those in life who will like you and dislike you for poor reasons—your height, age, race, gender, attire, accent, ability to spell, etc. These are people to avoid. The folks you want in your life are those who like you (and dislike you) for good reasons—character, attitude, generosity, perseverance, etc. I transferred to another English class mid-year and ended up with one of the best teachers of my life, Mr. Milo. We studied Shakespeare, poetry, and did loads of creative writing on topics that we got to choose. The type of writing was the only limitation. For the first time in my life, I actually enjoyed English. But now I’m way off topic. 

OK. All four characters from the puzzle had disabilities—so what? How does the city of Chicago relate? Well, in 1977 Chicago was one of ten cities that participated in the 504 Sit-in, the historic national protest for the rights of the disabled, the longest sit-in of a federal building in US history. In 1973 the first federal civil rights protection for people with disabilities (Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act) was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Nixon. Now that we have a theory, let’s see if it’s consistent with the poem and the image. 

And to Congress, R is known 

R = Rehabilitation Act passed by Congress

This is consistent with the Japanese Version Hint that “Congress” refers to the US Congress. Section 504 stipulated that “no otherwise qualified handicapped individual in the United States shall solely on the basis of his handicap, be excluded from the participation, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.” Essentially it said no program receiving federal funds could discriminate against a person with a disability.

It was up to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), to sign and implement guidelines specific to Section 504, which would further inform other agencies including the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to the specifics of the law. After the regulations were drawn up and presented to David Mathews, Nixon’s Secretary of HEW, he refused to sign. Instead he sent the regulation to Congress asking if this was what they had intended. They refused to answer as implementation was not their role. During this lengthy delay Dr. Frank Bowe, the founding director of the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD), lobbied and then sued to have the regulation signed as written. This stalemate continued for two and half years.

Where M and B are set in stone 

M = Mathews 

B = Bowe

Byron could have said etched in stone, or cut, or scrawled, or scratched, or written, or chiseled. But he didn’t. He used the one word that could also refer to these two men being set in their ways, set in their conflicting positions, set in stone. Through the remainder of his tenure, Mathews refused to sign. I think this reference to Frank Bowe is why Byron chose to include The Bowman in the image. 

When the Carter Administration took over and a new HEW Secretary was named, the hope was that the Section 504 regulation would be signed into law promptly as written. But the new Secretary, Joseph Califano, did not, instead forming a committee to review the regulation, imposing further delays. Fearing that the committee would water down the regulation, Bowe organized a nationwide sit-in of HEW offices to force the new Secretary to sign the regulation as is.

The Fair Folks’ Secret

 

In our land and in our time, the Fair People and their treasures wait to be discovered. If Man is good, and kind, and playful, he and she will find them. This is the Secret.

—Byron Preiss, The Secret 

Throughout the book The Secret: A Treasure Hunt, the magical creatures are referred to as the Fair Folk or Fair People. In this context Fair is a proper noun, so it could be derived from anything. However, most believe it’s either an abbreviation of the word fairy or utilizes the definition of the word fair meaning beautiful. Referring to all of the magical creatures described in the book as fairies seems like a bit of a stretch as some certainty don’t fit in that category. In some folklore, and in The Secret, elves are described as fair folk because they are generally portrayed as handsome people with fine features and few blemishes. The use of the word fair to describe all magical creatures, though, seems awkward, forced. Beautiful, does not accurately describe all of the magical creatures presented in Byron’s book. I think the meaning of the word “Fair” as used by Byron has a hidden meaning. 

Fair can also mean equitable or just. I think fairness is at the heart of all the puzzles and, likewise, the secret of The Secret. The “Fair Folk,” I believe, refers to magical creatures who believe in fairness and equality. Each puzzle hides a secret related to this topic, a message in a bottle composed of clues. 

In the movie The Matrix, there’s a scene where Neo, while in the Matrix, notices something odd, a cat that walks by in the same direction, in the same place, twice. Trinity notes that deja vu could indicate that the Matrix had been changed, that they’re walking into a trap. Our puzzle is like this. Little mistakes have huge implications. There’s a mistake in the following lines. See if you can find it. It’s very, very subtle.

Beyond his shoulder…

Is the Fair Folks'

Treasure holder

Do you see it? Note Byron’s use the plural possessive Fair Folks’ rather than singular possessive Fair Folk’s. The words folk and folks are interchangeable, synonymous. This is akin to an alternate spelling. The rule for alternative spellings or alternate forms of the same word is that you can use either one, but you have to pick one and stick with it. Byron used the word Folk rather than Folks throughout his book The Secret. The word Folks is only used here, which makes it a mistake, albeit, a very subtle one. It could be an honest mistake, but I don’t think so, not by an editor. 

I believe this is meant to communicate to us that this use of the word is different. That is to say that “Fair Folks” refers to all creatures (including people) who value equity and justice, not just magical creatures, as you might use the word fishes to refer to all types of fish or peoples to refer to all types of people. In other words, to figure out the secret of The Secret for Chicago we are to find something that all people who value fairness would treasure. To find this holder of fairness, we will need to employ one of my favorite scientific techniques. 

Profiling

First of all, there may be no answer to the question—What is the secret of The Secret? You can’t find something that isn’t there. The book doesn’t explicitly say there’s a secret in addition to the casque locations—but the title certainly does suggest there’s something, some deeper mystery. 

When profiling a serial killer it’s valuable to know as much as possible about his personal history, but most importantly you want to learn the details surrounding his first kill. It provides unique insight into his motives, goals, and state of mind. It’s a key piece of information, typically the most important piece, when trying to predict future behavior. If we were to profile Byron in hopes of understanding the secret of The Secret, we must get to know him, and then examine his first piece of professional literary work. 

From interviews with people who knew him well, we learn that Byron was an avid reader, eccentric, a promoter of early childhood reading, funny, and very religious. Universally, Byron was described as a good friend, a good parent, a good person, and a joy to be around. Here is an excerpt from his death notice appearing in the New York Times July 11, 2005:

A friend of the first and finest order, a sartorial and literary figure extraordinaire, a collector of art, books and outrageous ties, will always be remembered for his generous and embracing nature. Funny and serious, creative and intellectual, Byron was known for his colorful wardrobe, his deep interest in science and history, his commitment to Jewish charitable organizations, and the daily whimsical calls and text messages he sent his closest friends.

What we can learn from various biographies is that Byron’s father immigrated from Austria; his mother was born in New York City; and Byron was born in and grew up in Brooklyn. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania and earned a master's degree in communications from Stanford University. In 1971 while working as an elementary school teacher, he produced an anti-drug comic book called The Block that was distributed to schools nationwide. This detail is key because it was his first project and a very successful one. It speaks volumes about what we can expect from Byron. Clearly, he wanted to use his superpowers for good! 

In 1974 Byron started his own publishing company. He packaged and published books for numerous popular science fiction writers including Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clark. He also worked as an editor and author, winning an Ink Pot award in 1977. His most famous book being DragonWorld. He was also a pioneer in ebooks and digital publishing. We should expect the secret of The Secret to be consistent with his knowledge, skills, and values—and to relate in some fundamental way to his first project. 

Over the course of a year and a half, I studied all nine of the unsolved puzzles without so much as an inkling that the secret of The Secret even existed, let alone what it was. It wasn’t until I circled back trying to tie up loose ends that it finally slapped me in the face, presented itself to me in a very obvious way. When I first realized what it was, I was stunned, shocked, dumbfounded. But there it was, a whole additional level to the game that I’d completely missed, one that was even more convoluted, more complicated. 

A Splinter in your Mind

 

What you know you can't explain, but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life, that there's something wrong with the world. You don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.

—Morpheus in The Matrix 

What we know about the secret of The Secret we can’t explain, but we can feel it. We’ve felt it all along, that there’s something different about these mysteries. We don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in our mind, driving us mad. The odd wording and bizarre images capture the imagination and give the impression that Byron wove something extraordinary into these puzzles. 

Some think there’s a thirteenth casque that requires clues from all the puzzles to find. Though this hypothesis is plausible, I know of no evidence supporting it. Some think it’s a generic shortcut that can be applied to all of the puzzles. For example, one theory is that you can use a particular shadow on a particular day of the year, as in the books Masquerade and The Hobbit.

Regarding the theory that the secret of The Secret is a shortcut: Imagine that you are in the business of making safes, thick-walled, high-end, with very long, complex combinations, almost impossible to crack. You plan to build twelve of them. Would you at some point in the design process decide that what these safes really need is a back door with a small four-digit padlock securing it—and let’s make all of the combinations the same. The idea that Byron would spend all that time and resources creating these complex puzzles just to provide a simple way to circumvent all that work, is patently ridiculous. If you’re going to build a sophisticated safe, there’s going to be only one way in, the hard way. Let us never speak of this again. 

Here’s a crazy thought—a wacky, zany, cockamamie, hairbrained, preposterous, ridiculous, ludicrous, bizarro idea—Ya know how the majority of the book, The Secret: A Treasure Hunt, is just a façade, an elaborate framework with which to present twelve challenging puzzles? What if these incredibly complex puzzles are also just façades, each a framework with which to present another puzzle, even more complex, a puzzle within a puzzle repeated twelve times. As crazy as this sounds, there is something compelling about this idea. Could this be The Secret of The Secret? 

Gotcha! Just joking! Of course not! That would be crazy, too challenging, an even harder secret puzzle within each of the twelve already ridiculously complex puzzles? No way. That would be absurd!