Scaring the dickens out of someone

Is it possible to scare someone into being a nicer/better person? Why or why not? If so, is the transformation permanent?

Yes! It happened with Scrooge...but how many of us have gone through a scary experience and decided changes needed to be made? Or we had a close call or knew of someone who went through something and decided we definitely did not want to follow that same course?
-Bookworm

Yep. Hey, I've been through it. Some on here know the story, some don't. As a junior high kid I was pretty rebellious and my friends and I were all skater punks. One of my friends got hit by a car on his skateboard and killed. His best friend (another friend) then couldn't deal with the grief and about a week later hung himself.
We were suddenly dealing with the death of two friends and my best friend had just moved away and I was trying to figure out what to do. I had a dream that I died and I was sitting on a really cold and hard floor and I had a chain around my ankle. There wasn't anyone there with me, there wasn't any explanation of the situation. All I knew was I was dead and I was terrified. When I woke up I was altered.
That was when I decided to go to the high school where I didn't know anyone so I could start over. Then I became better friends with two of the kids in my ward that went to that school, then they invited me to early morning seminary with them where I met the coolest Mormon woman ever (to me at that time in my life) that had climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and liked my kind of music, etc. The first day I was there she had me come up to read a scripture. I was hesitant but did it anyway and I'm standing there, she tells me what verse, I read it and it was from the sermon on the mount - they that mourn shall be comforted.
So, really a scary dream changed my life.
-Annegirl

I don't remember you ever telling me that story before. I am sure I would have remembered if you had as that is so profound. Thank you for sharing that. That was your own personal "Christmas Carol"
-Bookworm

Really? Wow. I thought that was common knowledge in the family... but I guess since I didn't exactly tell you everything back then that I dealt with it quietly. Weird. So, what did you think made me decide to go to Alta and change things?
-Annegirl