Jack and the Astral Plane

Elrond Hubbard was caught up in the dragnet of suspicion over communist sympathizers. He wound up destitute, making pyrotechnics for the film industry to make ends meet. In 1952 he dropped a vial of nitroglycerin and blew himself into the astral plane. Depending on who you ask, this was either a horrible accident or a targeted assassination ordered by the US government.