Skeptics converted
Initially, there had been a great deal of criticism and skepticism about
Mrs. Piper's mediumship. But when the information and the messages
from the afterlife were so consistently accurate over so many years,
eventually even the second-most skeptical member of the SPR,
Richard Hodgson, formally conceded that Mrs. Piper's mediumship
was genuine, and he acknowledged that the information was coming
from intelligences in the afterlife.

Richard Hodgson had been expected by the SPR leadership to discredit
Mrs. Piper as he had tried to discredit all established mediums,
119 including Madam Blavatsky and Eusapia Palladino. He had been
especially chosen by the SPR and sent to investigate Mrs. Piper's
mediumship in its very early stages. Before he went to investigate Mrs.
Piper, he stated that he was going to show how she was able to use
tricks so successfully, or, in his own words, how Mrs. Piper obtained
information, "previously by ordinary means, such as inquiries by
confederates."
An incredible test
When one of Hodgson's own friends, George Pellew, died suddenly at
the age of 32 he began speaking through Mrs. Piper when she was in
trance and became her "control." Hodgson was now in a unique
position to ask his dead friend hundreds of questions about their
relationship. Over five years Mrs. Piper - or more correctly  skeptic
George Pellew speaking through her - answered his many questions correctly.
Over several months Hodgson introduced over 150 sitters at seances to
the entranced Mrs. Piper. Only thirty of these had known George
Pellew while he was alive - the others had never met him. George
Pellew was able to correctly identify all of the sitters whom he had
known. Most of them sat and talked and reminisced with George
Pellew, speaking through Mrs. Piper, as if he himself was there in the
flesh. His only mistake was to fail to identify a person whom he had
not met since the person was a very small girl!
These meetings were so absolutely impressive that Richard Hodgson
wrote his report explaining in detail why he was wrong in his earlier
reports and that now he had irretrievably accepted the existence of the
afterlife. He claimed that he had communicated with intelligences from
the afterlife and he "couldn't wait to get there" himself!

Richard Hodgson's hardcore skepticism had led him to committing
some of the most horrific blunders in psychic history. But they came to
an end with Mrs. Piper. He verified the existence of the afterlife,
saying:
At the present time I cannot profess to have any doubt but that the
chief "communicators" to whom I have referred in the foregoing
pages, are veritably the personalities that they claim to be, that they
have survived the change we call death, and that they have directly
communicated with us, whom we call living, through Mrs. Piper's
entranced organism (SPR Proceedings, Vol. 13, 1898, H.10).
This was quite stunning. Here was someone whose earlier immaturity,
relative incompetence, and inexperience, had helped to destroy the
credibility of two international mediums whom he did not take the time
to fully investigate. When he did investigate Mrs. Piper, he accepted
the afterlife because the consistently accurate evidence over the years
just would not go away. Hodgson was defeated by a mental medium,
and he knew it.
Giants of science humbled
Some of the most eminent scientists and scholars after scientifically
investigating Mrs. Piper's mediumship unanimously agreed in absolute,
unqualified terms that Mrs. Piper had proved the existence of the
afterlife. According to Nobel Prize winner Professor Richet's
authoritative book about psychic phenomena Our Sixth Sense (1927),
Frederick Myers , one of the most distinguished members of the
Society for Psychical Research, stated:
Messages were given to me and certain circumstances indicated
with which it was impossible that Mrs. Piper should be acquainted

Sir Oliver Lodge, one of the most distinguished scientists this world
has ever seen, stated:
I have assured myself that much of the information supplied by
Mrs. Piper during trance has not been acquired by ordinary every
day methods and precludes the use of the normal sense channels

Professor William James from the United States, initially a hardcore
skeptic and one of the most inspirational and intellectual giants of his
time, admitted:

I am absolutely certain that Mrs. Piper, in a state of trance, knows
things of which it is impossible that she should have had any
knowledge in the waking state (Richet 1927:128).

James Hyslop, Professor of Logic and Ethics at Columbia University
in the United States, a most obdurate closed-minded skeptic who for
many years disseminated much anti-psychic propaganda, eventually
conceded to the genuineness of Mrs. Piper's mediumship.
He founded the American Society for Psychical Research and wrote
seven books on the evidence for survival: Science and a Future Life
(1906), Borderland of Psychical Research (1906), Enigmas of
Psychical Research (1906), Psychical Research and the Resurrection
(1908), Psychical Research and Survival (1913), Life After Death
(1918) and Contact with the Other World (1919).

James Hyslop, Professor of Logic and Ethics at Columbia University
in the United States, a most obdurate closed-minded skeptic who for
many years disseminated much anti-psychic propaganda, eventually
conceded to the genuineness of Mrs. Piper's mediumship.

In Life After Death (1918) he wrote:
I regard the existence of discarnate spirits as scientifically proved
and I no longer refer to the skeptic as having any right to speak on
the subject. Any man who does not accept the existence of
discarnate spirits and the proof of it is either ignorant or a moral
coward. I give him short shrift, and do not propose any longer to
argue with him on the supposition that he knows anything about
the subject.