A. E. van Vogt
On November 3, 2014, Tony Ortega, an on-line reporter who reports extensively about Scientology, posted about a magazine article, by Susan Raine - “Astounding history: L. Ron Hubbard’s Scientology space opera” in the journal Religion. In his post Ortega mentioned something about A.E.van Vogt, a friend of Hubbard's, from Ron's days of writing science fiction stories.
Ortega writes - "(Van Vogt was an early admirer of Dianetics, and even became leader of Dianetics in California, but later he grew disillusioned when Hubbard began encouraging followers to explore their “past lives.”)"
This line bugged me as Perry had stated in an email that van Vogt had attended the July, 1954, Phoenix lectures, about three years after Hubbard had started talking about past lives. So I asked Perry to comment about Ortega's statement. Here is what Perry Chapdelaine Sr. replied to me on November 7, 2014 -
"When I first met A.E. van Vogt he and his wife E. (Edna) Mayne Hull (her name as an also science fiction writer) was at 7175-1/2 Sunset Blvd. in Hollywood, CA not far from the Grauman Theatre, both were deeply immersed in the practice of Dianetics and Scientology had not yet been invented. Later, on visits to van’s home after Edna died, van was still practicing first book Dianetics. He still entertained preclears in his home. He never mentioned to me what he thought of Scientology.
Even later, when he visited me in Nashville, TN, van still accepted the tenants of Dianetics and we never discussed Scientology.
The comment you’re referring to is “In particular, she notes that A. E. van Vogt and others were writing stories in which mankind could be “improved” to become superhuman, particularly in their intellectual capacities. (Van Vogt was an early admirer of Dianetics, and even became leader of Dianetics in California, but later he grew disillusioned when Hubbard began encouraging followers to explore their “past lives.”)”
I can only provide my best guess from here on in.
I seriously doubt that van would be upset by past lives. His mind was unique and quite complacent about far out ideas and also the nature of reality. The article from which the above quote is derived is actually quite accurate, in my opinion, but regarding van, what the author probably does not know is that (1) van deliberately studied two fields of knowledge when writing his stories. Example might be something like (a) psychic phenomena and (b) physics. (2) van often set his alarm clock at night to ring every so many minutes. I’ve forgotten what it was set for, but say, every half hour. He’d wake up and write down his dreams. These dreams would often form the substrate or even main events to his stories. I know this method because that’s what I did, copying van, when I wrote my published story “Breathe, Breathe! God How I Would Breathe! Now found on kindle and nook.
Van’s first wife, Edna, would be quite inclined to accept past lives, and I know for fact that he’d never pooh, pooh her.
During one visit before he married his 2nd wife. Van walked his dog each morning. His home was immediately across the road from the big, white, well known “HOLLYWOOD” sign. I was surprised to find a road immediately in front of the sign because that never shows on news or in movies. Anyway, van advertised in local Los Angeles papers to find a person who would know a not well known language. I can’t give an example ‘cause I don’t know much about languages, but sometimes he’d also pick a well-known language like Italian. (He gave me a copy ‘cause I’m half Italian.) He’d prepare a script of common words and phrases for this person to translate onto a tape recorder. Then, while he walked his dog in the mornings, he’d play the tape to learn the language. He had a theory that if he could keep his brain functioning he’d never suffer from Alzheimer’s. (These tapes were later sold to a company for reproduction and resale to the public.)
On my last visit to van, he’d married again. I’d always stayed at his house when at that end of the country, but not this time. Sadly, his then wife did not know me and van was now suffering from Alzheimer ’s disease. We went to a restaurant together. Van knew my name but he’d forgotten everything else about me!
I kept in touch with van’s progress for a number of years, chiefly through Forry Ackerman who was not just a mutual friend but also agent to both of us. Forry told me that his 2nd wife had placed him in a home where van was in terrible condition.
I talked to his 2nd wife on the telephone during that terrible ordeal and she commented mainly on how sorry she felt for herself. She’d married van because she’d expected to live together the remainder of their lives, and now she was alone.
Sorry! I don’t know any further."