I am publicly laying claim to have found the map to David Blaine's hidden treasure and am simultaneously releasing to anybody who wants to use it to find the treasure.

I am releasing this with a time stamp to all the "Treasure Hunt" forums as well as David Blaine's official forum and EMAIL address. David Blaine has always stated he wanted to bring people together and in that spirit I have decided to release The Map for all to pursue. May Peace and Love be upon you all.

PART ONE: The Map

Blaine said there was a simple solution if you were to "think outside the box" and that if you tried to solve the mystery by solving all the clues it would be very difficult. The following coversation takes place between Davi Blaine and Paula Zahn, back on November 14, 2002 when the challenge was first released with the book.

DAVID BLAINE: I kind of created it, so -- with help, of course, but I created it so that it would be very simple, if you were to think outside of the box, or if you were to go the typical way of solving clues, it would be very difficult.

ZAHN: Do you think anybody's going to find it?

BLAINE: Absolutely.

And later:

BLAINE: So if you turn it counterclockwise and you start to decipher the letters, these are top halves of letters, so you can see the word wonderful. Maybe you could look at the last one which is P-E-E- R-S, which people figured out, it's all over the Internet already. There are clues like that that are abstract.

ZAHN: We appreciate the help, David. We just have to understand those clues.

BLAINE: I'm not helping you, believe me.

When I first contemplated solving this, I immediately believed all the cyphers in the book, while possibly leading anywhere, were nothing but a brilliant work of distraction by Cliff Johnson.

We all know by now from the public clues Blaine gave, that the orb is in a stone.

The simplest solution begins with, "X MARKS THE SPOT" on page 59.

Every child knows that X marks the spot for buried treasure on a map.

I plug that term into a search engine, the first connection kicks in.

The actress "Sally Blane" starred in the film, "X Marks The Spot" in 1931.

We're in the movies now and the "Guys and Dolls" movie still underneath the stone with the "X" on it becomes the focus of my attention. I do a search on the movie. I find that actress VIVIAN BLAINE plays Adelaide, Sinatra's love interest. The girls surrounding Brando were called "The Goldwyn Girls" and I switch it around thinking "win gold." They are sitting on boxes, think "outside" the box..

The "A" in the lower left hand corner box is identical to a compass directional in the Haggstrom road maps. The girls' outfits remind me of the Little Man from Nurmberg's hair and his hidden messages.

I get the magnifying glass out. I think of the new paperback edition of "Mysterious Stranger" and the eye in the hand. I think "sight of hand" a play on sleight of hand. I look at Brando's left hand pointing at the fine 50's cleavage. I bring the magnifying glass closer. On her left breast I believe the number "911" has been inked in and, I believe... an upside down number "70" has also been manufactured. It's much clearer in the new paperback edition, but you should have no problem seeing it with a magnifying glass in the hard cover.

I turn the book around 90 degrees clockwise, so the numbers now read "116 70".

It's odd that the 70 looks more like 70 when it's upside down. I'm not totally certain about the "70" or what it means, but it got me to turn the thing over and think about 116, which I am certain about. I saw the 911 and it caused an alert, a strong reaction automatically kicked in. The possibility of the 70 being upside down gave me the idea to turn the 911 over.

The moment I realized it was the number 116 when flipped over, I became thrilled.

I pondered, "What's the simplest meaning?" The answer, "The map must be on page 116." I frantically turn to page 116 and lo and behold, a map lies there in the left hand border! A map of Venezuala. But the orb is hidden in the Continental USA? Still, the coincidence feels too strong, and I keep staring at the map, waiting for inspiration. Suddenly, I notice the trim of the map looks very much like a film strip, as well as a map binder. We're back in the movies now. The Guys and Dolls film strip led me to the map page. Then I recall the song, "Follow the Fold" from Guys and Dolls. I had come across all the lyrics while doing the first search. So I follow the fold over the dark solid line going down the page cutting the map almost in half, removing the most Eastern section of the pg. 116 map from view. As I tilt the map clockwise, while playing with the film strip, I begin to recognize the Western border as practically identical to a map of New Jersey. I then read what David Blaine has scribbled in there. It says, "river creates a border with Columbia." And I notice that the Delaware River creates a border between New Jersey and Pennsylvania in an identical pattern as to the pg. 116 map. Just turn the DB map clockwise about 80 degrees and compare the ridges and contours of the two maps.

Look up at the North West area of the New Jersey map and see that the city of COLUMBIA, New Jersey, borders Pennsylvania. And right above COLUMBIA, you can see the slight blue line of the Delaware River, which means that Columbia borders a river separating two States on both maps, maps that are very similar. Going back to the Guys and Dolls photo, it's been altered from the original. I found a rare original copy of this photo for sale on the internet. It's a driect generation from the original studio negative. It hasn't been delivered yet, but I have a JPEG you can see. It's been drastically trimmed.

It's also in color. The "F" and the "R" have been trimmed off the box leaving the "A", which looks just like a map compass directional. (The letter read "age" if you leave out the hidden "i". It originally read "fragile."

It will be interesting to see if the numbers "116" and "70" are in the original photo or not . You can't tell from this J Peg. Regardless, the odds of the maps being that alike as well as the numbers being present by coincidence are mathematically extreme.

Now flip to the very first page of the chapter with the Guys and Dolls movie still in it, Chapter V, "Confidence." Go there now and read the caption by Cicero,

"Careful attention to one thing often proves superior to genius." - Cicero

And the images on pages 54 and 55 are of a child and a genius. It's a tip off that the simple solution would be foudn in Chapter Five. The one thing you needed to concentrate on was the most obvious, and the most simple clue.

X MARKS THE SPOT.

The map is on page 116, and the treaure is in New Jersey, where David Blaine lived from 11 to 16.

I'm giving the map away because I want the glory more than the gold.
I'm severely broke, but the money made me feel dark today.
I needed to cleanse myself. I hope somebody finds it.

PART 2: The Map Point

Going back to the map. The dashes that plot DB's course are like the morse code dashes on other pages. The first point on the map is "Puerto Ayacucho". The name Ayacucho means "the corner where we cried for our dead people" in "Quechuan", the Inka’s language. I've also seen it translated as, "The corner of the dead" and "The place of the dead."

While doing a search on Ayachuco this listing came back - "A town in Worcestershire, England, so called from the old English Dode-ley, the place of the dead, a burying-ground. Dodelig, in the Danish, signifies pale, death-like, mortal; so also the Dutch Doodelijk, and German Todlich. Duv-da-lethe, in the Gaelic and Celtic, which has been corrupted to Dudley, has the same signification."

I then plugged in "Dudley, New Jersey" in a search and found exactly one hit mentioning a town called Dudley, New Jersey in a biography on W.C. Fields. This informed me that the town of Dudley was just north of Camden. In fact it is now part of East Camden.

The "Puerto Ayacucho" point on the DB map corresponds perfectly to Camden, New Jersey. I went there today and it was quite a trip. Thomas Dudley was one of the greatest fighters against slavery in the history of the USA. He organized a spy ring in Liverpool to bust the British doing business with the Confederacy. The small town that was Dudley in East Camden now holds Dudley Grange Park, on what was his estate. This is a very run down area but it has loads of character and characters.

I didn't find the egg.

I went to the Camden free library and while doing research on Dudley, I came across info on Walt Whitman who is buried in Harleigh Cemetery, Camden New Jersey.

I thought "place of the dead." Harleigh Cemetery is one of the most intense cemeteries I've ever seen with massive mausoleums. On my way from the library to Harleigh I had to cross through a ghetto of Camden where I came by the most run down and beaten up Cemetery I've ever seen sitting next to a Salvation Army (which once again reminded me of Guys and Dolls.) This cemetery is open 24/7 and I can assure you there is no security. Their are many holes in the surrounding fence. The place is surreal. Many of the headstones are all smashed up, and I looked over every stone in this place of the dead.

It was one of the most interesting and spiritual walks I've ever had and it reminded me of just how destined for the next life we all all. The name of the cemetery was not identified, and was not marked.

I did not find the orb.

I then moved on to the extreme opposite, Harleigh Cemetery, a bastion of wealth.

Whitman's tomb is this bizarre mausoleum which is made of huge stone slabs, about 7 of them, which apparently weigh two to three tons each. Also, the tomb is surrounded by stones of varying sizes, which drove me crazy looking for the orb.

Whitman was born is Brooklyn, like David Blaine, and he moved to New Jersey, like DB. I couldn't find the orb.

Buried not far from Whitman is Nick Virgilio, the famous American Haiku poetry master. Haiku's made me think of Cliff Johnson sayings.

I didn't find the egg.

I believe the Orb will be found in Camden, New Jersey

I am the first to locate the town Blaine's treasure is buried in. Nov. 7, 2003.

BLAINE: The clue is, if my tattoo is fearless, then climb 10 weeks to find the route, and route is spelled r-o-u-t-e. If my tattoo is fearless then climb 10 weeks to find the route -- the other thing I would say is drop the most common dice number that’s thrown on a craps table.

The tattoo David refers to in the new riddle is the one on his arm from the last page of the book. The tattoo reads 174517.

If that number is “fearless” then climb 10 weeks. The number must represent a date since we are measuring distance by days. I started doing the math.

60 minutes in an hour — 24 x 60 = 1440 — 1440 minutes in a day.

31 x 1440 = 44640 (Jan)
28 x 1440 = 40320 (Feb)
31 x 1440 = 44640 (Mar)
30 x 1440 = 43200 (Apr)

172800 minutes

That covers Jan. 1 - April 30.

174517 - 172800 = 1717

1717 - 1440 = 267

That covers May 1st and we’re into May 2nd.

267 minutes is.... 4 hours and 27 minutes.

The date is May 2nd and the time is 4:27 AM.

We must now determine if May 2nd is a “fearless” day. I thought it was going to lead to May 1st, which I was hoping for because that is “International Workers Day.” But it’s not May 1st, it’s May 2nd.

I plugged May 2nd into a search engine and found a VERY interesting fact. Have you ever heard of the MAY 2nd MOVEMENT from the 60’s?

From the May 2nd Movement Manifesto, “The May 2nd movement opposes this 1965 version of imperialism--the corporations that exact superprofits, the military machine that enforces the system by violence and the cultural establishment that maintains the system abroad and at home, by racism, ignorance, lies and suppression of the socially creative forces within man himself.”

It’s certainly qualifies as a “fearless” day. Anytime the people stand up to tyranny and violence against a tyrannical regime they are being brave. May 2nd 1964 was the day this movement started and it was a fearless day.

The date for purposes of solving the riddle is May 2 and the time is 4:27 AM when we start climbing.

At 4:28 AM on July 10th the 70th day begins. While it is the 70th day for 4 hours and 27 minutes on July 11, it is the 70th day for over 19 HOURS on JULY 10th. July 10 may be written correctly as 7/10.

Drop the number that’s most commonly rolled in a craps game. That number is 7 which leaves us with 10, ROUTE 10 in New Jersey.

Look at a map of New Jersey now. State ROUTE 10 begins in WEST ORANGE, New Jersey at the intersection of Mt. Pleasant Avenue and Main Street. Mt. Pleasant Avenue is ROUTE 10. Main Street is THOMAS EDISON AVENUE.

Chapter 5, “Confidence” holds David Blaine’s so called “simple” solution to the challenge. “Careful attention to one thing often proves superior to genius.” — Cicero. That’s from page 54 with the child. On page 55 is “the genius”, a slightly altered image of THOMAS EDISON, but the eyes have been retouched. Look at the following slides of Edison, concentrate on the last two, there are 6 which will flash by after you click the link. #5 shows Edison holding a tube or something and it’s the one after that you really need to focus on. It’s THOMAS EDISON. Edison set up shop in WEST ORANGE from 1887-1931, his most prolific years. More than half of his 1093 patents were created there. Edison is buried in West Orange. The most important thing that was created by Edison in West Orange is the MOTION PICTURE. The Black Maria full size replica sits outside on Main Street. We’re back in the movies where this solve started.

The film strip from “Guys and Dolls” led us to the map on page 116. We found the “911” inked into the cleavage of the girl in the photo on page 59, the girl Marlon Brando’s left hand is pointing at. But there is an upside down number “70” in that photo also, a space or two away from the 911. So when you turn the book over and the 70 is right side up, the “911” becomes “116”.

I like the idea of Blaine turning the 911 over and making it into something positive. DAVID, that’s beautiful. Congratulations on your greatest effect ever. I love it man, pure genius. May peace and love be upon you.

The cleavage brings us the answer, “The Map” is on page 116. It looks like a motion picture FILM STRIP. (It’s also interesting to note that Guys and Dolls is centered around Sinatra’s “floating craps game”.)

ON page 56 we have the story of Titanic Thompson throwing the ORANGE. Now turn to page 55 and notice Edison on it, 55 is West of 56. WEST ORANGE.

I then needed to correlate WEST ORANGE to “The Map” on page 116 which I claim is most of New Jersey (missing part of the East Coast).

I also needed to clear up what the hidden number 70 from page 59 was all about. I wasn’t sure in “The Map” solution, but now I know and it’s VERY relevant.

Howard Hughes is on page 70 where his plane, a Lockheed Superelectra (defined by the number NX 19873) touched down in Brooklyn on Floyd Bennet Field. Back to that later.

I determined that the “Puerto Ayacucho” map point was the “deceased” town of Dudley, New Jersey and is now known as East Camden. I still had to determine what the map point of CARACAS was.

While comparing the map on page 116 to a map of New Jersey, you must tilt the map in the book clockwise almost 90 degrees. When you do this you’ll see that the dotted line goes from CAMDEN to NEWARK.

CARACAS is NEWARK. Caracas is the largest city in Venezuela and Newark is the largest city in New Jersey. Both are on the water.

Vivian Blaine, the lead from Guys and Dolls was born in Newark and Howard Hughes touched down in Newark when he broke the record for the fastest USA coast to coast flight.

This is where the number “70” clue on page 59 comes in. Howard Hughes touched down in Floyd Bennet field when he broke the record for flying around the world. On page 70 is the close up of his
plane touching down. The page is a map point.

Take a straight edge and plot a line from the center of Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn and run it through NEWARK, New Jersey. Look at where it crosses ROUTE 10, yup.... It crosses ROUTE 10 in WEST ORANGE.

I don’t know if you’ve been to Cliff Johnson’s site recently, but he has a message there stating that he created the most recent clue given by Blaine on Larry King. This caption appears above the photos of Cliff with DB and Kalush.

Now read the caption from another page at the site which once again shows the same photo of Cliff and Blaine: “I designed the $100,000 Challenge for the book Mysterious Stranger with street magician David Blaine and potato king Bill Kalush in summer of 2002. We’re standing under the big dub-a-ya. See it?” This is a reference to the film, “It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World” where they search for the buried treasure which is marked by a big “W”.

Thomas Edison was once asked by a new employee, “What are the rules?” And Edison replied, “Rules. There are no rules, we’re trying to create something.”

This film is one of Cliff Johnson’s favorite films of all time. The big W stands for WEST.

The Amulet is hidden in WEST ORANGE, New Jersey.

STOP THE HUNT! I have found THE TREASURE. It was grabbed by me at 11:30 PM right across the street from the BLACK MARIA replica, the first motion picture studio, in a small public parking lot in West Orange, New Jersey last night, 11/7/2003. I was almost arrested by the police so the whole thing is recorded for posterity.

After posting the location essay last night, I had a sudden recollection of an interview David Blaine gave to NEWSDAY last year. I don't know what the driving thought was, but I just knew I had to look that interview up, and when I did, the date it took place hit me like a ton of bricks. It opened up a door making me realize that I actually had my hand on the amulet earlier that day and did not know it.

I will put together a full essay with photos of the Amulet and a very extensive final solution soon. I need to crash out as Im totally exhausted.

But for now I will give you the main info that helped me understand and procure The Amulet.

"Some might say this was the strange place where coincidence plays into reality, but when it hits on this level, it seems to be more than coincidence, as if there's some other force at work."

David Blaine, pg. 106 of "Mysterious Stranger."

The final answer has a massive coincidence attached. As stated, the amulet was found on 7/11/2003, exactly one year to the day that David Blaine gave the most important interview regarding "The Amulet."

Rule 4 on page 213 states:

4. The Book was first available on October 29, 2002. The Challenge will run until both the Map and Treasure are found....

Rule 4 establishes that The Challenge begins on October 29.

I now draw your attention to the interview David Blaine gave to NEWSDAY last year on november 7, 2002:

By David Behrens
Newsday staff writer

November 7, 2002

"Visiting David Blaine's Manhattan apartment is like having a front-row seat at a one-man show. Great entertainment, even though it's hard to spot where the performer ends and the real person begins.

They mesh - fittingly - as if by magic.

The 29-year-old magician - tabbed by some critics as a potential successor to the great Harry Houdini - unfolds himself in a cascade of ideas, stories, literary allusions, pithy quotations, tips on diet and health, and his plans for present and future.

Foremost in his thoughts on this occasion is his new book, "Mysterious Stranger: A Book of Magic" (Villard, $24.95), published last week."

NEWSDAY is a daily New York newspaper. This article appeared on November 7, 2002. The writer mentions above that "Mysterious Stranger" was "published last week." So this interview took place around a week after publication. The challenge was released to the public according to RULE 4 on October 29, 2002. In order for the CHALLENGE to be "running", "THE TREASURE", "an "AMULET", according to the rules, must have been hidden at the time of this interview.

Now look at the following passage from the NEWSDAY interview (the link to the full interview is below).

"Soon after his discovery of Houdini, he told his mother he was going to be a showman when he grew up. "She smiled and said that sounded great," he wrote.

'But let me show you my treasure," Blaine says, pointing to the mantelpiece in his living room.

There rests a small round golden ball. It is gold, in fact, the size of a small child's palm. It is hefty enough to be worth $10,000 - but its real value has doubled since it is hand-inscribed with a message in miniature script.

Blaine turns the ball counterclockwise, reading the words cut into the gold, snaking round and round the nugget: Magic, Enchantment, Conjure, Charm, Astonish, Spirit, Prestige, Endure, Legerdemain.

The gold ball will be buried somewhere in the United States, he says. The clues are in the text and illustrations of his book. Find the nugget and win the money."

One year to the date David "set up" the misdirection "effect", the real AMULET was found. Coincidence. What a trip. The "AMULET", aka "The Treasure" is not the gold ball that David spoke about in this and many other interviews because at the time David gave this interview we know the Challenge was at least one week old, and we know the gold ball was not hidden. He showed the gold ball with the magical words written around it to David Behrens at least one week after "The Challenge" began.

Therefore, "THE TREASURE" referenced in "THE RULES" must be a different AMULET than the one David showed to Behrens.

Indeed it is. I found it, and it has symbols written on it. I found it just a few steps from where the first motion pictures were made, "in a stone" and I did not have to damage any property to get it. The spot was very cleverly marked with an "X" which is a prop I also have in my possession.

My fantastic adventure with this hunt began when I decided to focus on the most simple clue in the whole book, the stone with the X on it from page 59.

X MARKS THE SPOT.

"Careful attention to one thing often proves superior to genius." Cicero, from page 54 of "Mysterious Stranger."

I'll have photos and more of the solution for you after I get some sleep and celebrate with my friends a bit.

Thomas Alva Edison, aka The WIZARD of Menlo Park. IMHO Edison is the greatest magician ever. After all, he is responsible for giving us RECORDS and MOTION PICTURES, the two greatest works of magic ever (not counting miracles).

Where would we be without movies and records?

I snapped the photo standing at the site I found The Amulet. Just so we're clear, the AMULET was found at the spot I'm standing on which you cannot see in this picture.

What you can see is a very weird multi colored image that looks like a trippy ghost taking flight over the street. And the head of the ghost appears in the EDISON water tower. Is that the ghost of Thomas Edison? I don't know about that, but it did give me an electric jolt when I saw it.