Various government agencies charge for a variety of services, not only copying but also many times even the cost of looking into indexes and databases. In some instances, this fee can be waived by special request for records determined-by the Feds, not the applicant-in the "public interest"; in other cases, it is possible to forego copy charges by viewing records for free the agency office (then of course, there are travel expenses.) Although researchers mostly look through records that have already been paid for by their tax money, they should be prepared to pay some amount for getting copies.

Remember, the above letter covers third party requests and therefore requires that an obituary or the permission of the person whose records are being sought, so a note to that effect should also be included. This kind of search is most fruitful for people looking into historic figures like Reich (or Tesla, or Vannevar Bush, Einstein, John Lennon . . . a large section of the historic record has yet to be plundered), and again new and multiple searches often yield information that has not yet surfaced.

If a researcher determines to look for his own records, of course, permission has already been granted by the person under investigation. In order to check any record the CIA or the FBI has collected on you; rewrite the preceding letter appropriately with details from your own life and the period under which you suspect a file was opened. Address requests to the Freedom of Information Act officer. The FBI is located at the U.S. Justice Department, 10th and Pennsylvania, Washington, DC 2053S; address requests to the CIA to the Information and Privacy Coordinator, Central Intelligence Agency, Washington, DC 20535.

Other good sources to tap for records are the Federal Bureau of Prisons, 320 First Street NW, Washington, DC 20934; the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 425 I Street NW, Room 5304, Washington, DC 20536; the Food and Drug Administration FOI Office, HFI-39, Room 12A-16, 9600 Fishers Lane, Rockville, MD 20857; Attorney General John Ashcroft can be reached at the Justice Department on Constitution Avenue and 10th Street, NW in DC; and for records particular to UFO related activity, contact Air Force Technical Intelligence, 411S Hebble Creek Road, Suite 14, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 49433-9618.

Two caveats govern FOIA requests: develop a certain resignation that the basic US principle of freedom is at odds with the national security state and therefore many things will never be released; but develop also patience that eventually some records may eventually be turned over to you if you work at it long enough - by mistake, bureaucratic inertia or the occasional defiance of an alienated file clerk. Perhaps it is too obvious to make explicit: Government denial that such records do not exist does not mean that they do not exist. Slap this work in a file somewhere and get on with life, checking on it occasionally and doing follow-up correspondence every three-to-six months, or get anal about it and check every ten days, the response period dictated by law.

Research at the National Archives always requires specificity and often requires proximity. As a national administrative bureaucracy, the National Archives (technically called the National Archives and Records Administration) gives a full explanation of itself on the Web.

Through the National Archives of the Kennedy Library and via mail, Steamshovel Press uncovered and was the first to publish the only photograph of JFK with Mary Pinchot Meyer, the woman with whom he apparently shared the psychedelic experience. According to one theory, suggested by Tim Leary, Meyer gave Kennedy pot and acid as part of a mission by a feminist cabal to "turn on" political and military leaders. (JFK's response to smoking a joint reportedly was, "This is not like cocaine. I'll have to get you some cocaine.") In Steamshovel Press, author G. J. Krupey suggested that JFK may have been a pawn of the MKULTRA mind control project of the intelligence community, a scenario supported by events surrounding the recovery of Meyer's diary after her murder.

In his 1970 book, Conversations With Kennedy, Ben Bradlee described a scene in which Kennedy traveled to Milford, PA, officially to dedicate a building to the cause of conservation, but in reality to meet Mary Meyer's mother. Bradlee described the outdoor, on-the-porch, meeting as one of "history's frozen shots" and mentioned that photographers were all over the place. In his book, Bradlee also narrowed the date to September 1963, and with that provided enough information-subject, place and a date-to find the photograph in the National Archives. After its publication in both Steamshovel Press and >Popular Alienation, the anthology released by IllumiNet, Bradlee himself included the photograph in his latest book, A Good Life (Simon & Schuster, 1996), this time calling the scene "one of history's stiffest sets of smiles." Several other photos in the series still have been published only by Steamshovel.

That level of detail is prerequisite to doing work in the National Archives building in Washington. A general search for, say, the papers of MJ12 signatory and hypertext prophet Vannevar Bush yielded nothing, for instance. Subject control like that can mostly be found at the JFK assassination collection. The recent publication of Reich's correspondence at the time of his immigration to the US, however, in a book called Beyond Psychology, provided enough information to uncover the passenger manifest of the ship he came over on-along with other passengers and details that will be important to future research. A similar document with Einstein's name that at one time decorated a lobby display in front of the National Archives' elevator.