Objects are null when they should be filled, and the only reason appears to be arbitrary

Question

I'm somewhat new to PUN and Unity so hopefully, I am making some kind of beginner mistake.

void Update(){

if(launch == true){

Debug.Log("launched");

myPhotonView.RPC("ChangeScene", PhotonTargets.All);

}

//myPhotonView.RPC("ChangeScene", PhotonTargets.All);

}

When I run the code above, I can see launched in the console but I get

"NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object" on this line: myPhotonView.RPC("ChangeScene", PhotonTargets.All);

When I run it with that line commented out and the line that's outside the if statement uncommented, there is no null reference exception and the method executes. Is there a mistake in the above code, or is this a bug in Photon?

Any help at all is much appreciated. I can post the full code or error messages if anyone thinks it's necessary.

Also, this is less important, but myPhotonView is null in any methods I create that aren't regular MonoBehaviour methods like Start or Update even though I set it as a global variable and filled it in Start before I try to access it. This seems like it might be tied to the other problems I'm having, and it's the only reason I'm using Update for this.

Edit: Here's the entire file:

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class NetworkedPlayer : Photon.MonoBehaviour{
    public GameObject avatar;
    public PhotonView myPhotonView;
    public bool launch = false;
    public string destination = "";
    //Responsible for avatar movements on the plane
    public Transform playerGlobal;
    //Responsible for headmovements
    public Transform playerLocal;
    public Transform playerRotation;

    void Start (){
        //launch is successfuly set to false
        //if(!launch) Debug.LogError("banana");

        Debug.Log("Instantiated");
        //Necessary for photon voive to work
        var temp1 = PhotonVoiceNetwork.Client; 
        myPhotonView = this.photonView;
        //this ensures that only you can control your player
        if (photonView.isMine){
            Debug.Log("Controlling my avatar");

            playerGlobal = GameObject.Find("OVRPlayerController").transform;
            playerLocal = playerGlobal.Find("OVRCameraRig/TrackingSpace/CenterEyeAnchor/Pivot");
            playerRotation = playerGlobal.Find("OVRCameraRig/TrackingSpace/CenterEyeAnchor");


            this.transform.SetParent(playerLocal);
            this.transform.localPosition = Vector3.zero;
            this.transform.rotation = playerRotation.transform.rotation;

            // avatar.SetActive(false);
            //Throws null
            //GetComponent<PhotonVoiceRecorder> ().enabled = true;
        }
    }               

    void OnPhotonSerializeView(PhotonStream stream, PhotonMessageInfo info){
        //This sends your data to the other players in the same room
        if (stream.isWriting){
            stream.SendNext(playerGlobal.position);
            stream.SendNext(playerGlobal.rotation);
            stream.SendNext(playerLocal.localPosition);
            stream.SendNext(playerLocal.localRotation);
        }
        //This recieves information from other players in the same room
        else{
            this.transform.position = (Vector3)stream.ReceiveNext();
            this.transform.rotation = (Quaternion)stream.ReceiveNext();
            avatar.transform.localPosition = (Vector3)stream.ReceiveNext();
            avatar.transform.localRotation = (Quaternion)stream.ReceiveNext();
        }
    }

    public void ChangeAndSyncScene(string dest){
        Debug.LogError("Dest selected: " + dest);
        launch = true;
        destination = dest;
        Update();
    }

    void Update(){
        if(launch == true){
            Debug.LogError("launched");
            myPhotonView.RPC("ChangeScene", PhotonTargets.All);
            ChangeScene();
        }
        myPhotonView.RPC("ChangeScene", PhotonTargets.All);
    }

    [PunRPC]
    void ChangeScene(){
        Debug.LogError("scene changed");
        Application.LoadLevel (destination);
    }
}

Edit: I never managed to fix this, but I did get around it. I created gameobjects to give values to other players in the game. PM me for more info