Hubbard had given van Vogt’s address to prospective applicants, and he received five thousand dollars in fees. After eighteen days, he was convinced. Obtaining a copy of Dianetics, he read it through twice. For his first test subject, he chose his wife’s sister, who shrieked at the touch of the forceps during a memory of her birth. Next on his couch was Forrest Ackerman, who experienced a cathartic sense of grief over the death of his brother in the war.
