[1] Hill was born in Halifax, West Yorkshire, and was educated at Thornton Grammar School.
[6] Hill greatly admired the philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
[8][9] Arthur Conan Doyle wrote a supportive introduction to the book but later commented in 1926 that it was "written from a strictly psychic research point of view, and is far behind the real provable facts.
"[10] Psychical researcher Hereward Carrington described the book as a "fair and impartial summary.
Psychologist Millais Culpin wrote that Hill was gullible in trusting the word of mediums and did not know anything about dissociation.