It seems like many people are shocked when they arrive when they come to notice that their personalities pretty much stay the same as how they were when they left the other side. Of course you can change here in certain ways, but most had the impression that when they came here they'd automatically be a better person. That they'd be nicer, less bias and maybe not have the flaws that they've been hoping to get rid of. But of course it doesn't work that way. I mean yes, it is a life changing experience and many act different for a little bit, but after a while people go back to what they were. From what I've seen if you were stubborn before, you're stubborn here. If you were the kind of person who always wanted to learn and grow and make yourself better then you'll be more happy here. Because we are limited in things we can do here, obviously, because we don't have our bodies. So if you don't have the right attitude, then this place becomes hell  for them in a weird way.
 You'd think that people would just let go of their pride when they got here though. For example I met a man recently. His name was Fredrick. He kept telling me and honestly trying to convince me that he must not be dead because he was still living. Yet, he doesn't have a body and has been told countless times where he is. "You can't always believe what people tell you, " he said.
I guess it's true that seeing doesn't always make one believe.
But on the other hand, I guess that's not a completely true statement, because there are people who come here, and see this place, and they are..soften in a way which makes them change. So I guess the statement should say  you need to be willing to look and then you can see and choose to believe.
To believe in what though. I hear things. Many things actually. There seems to be just as many people, who are obsessed with religion as there were on the other side. Mother always taught me to be good. I went to church with her a couple times when I was older and the sermons sounded a lot like what she taught me. There's got to be something to all this talk.

I met a man today- he's crazy. Honestly, I've met some crazy people before but nothing like this. He was a smoker on the other side and can't think or do anything without his nicotine. I never needed something that badly before. I can't imagine what he's going through but it seems like his own personal hell. I talked to this man about it, but the conversion didn't last long of course. "I thought smoking only effected my lungs. I died from it for crying out loud! I saw how it destroyed my family, and then my body. Now it's continuing to destroy me without a body!"  He told me he had to go and that was it. I'm sure he'll get better. I hope so. He seems like a nice man.
I told Hannah about him, and she went on and on (like usual) about when she was on the other side she met so many people who got into stuff like that and sometimes worse. "I'd hate to see a meth addict here," she said. She tells me so many things that don't seem real. She told me her sister Lindsey,who's also here, had a similar addictive behavior. She didn't eat.  Can you believe that? She actually wanted to make herself starve! That's how Lindsey got here. Hannah says Lindsey would do anything now to have any kind of body, big or small.  I don't get it. She blames it on her mother. She claims that her mother was so caught up in looking a certain way which made her never feel beautiful. Mother never talked about her body. But I do remember when I was getting older she said, " always remember you are beautiful, but don't let that take up all the space in that mind of yours or there won't be room in there to think about others."

Sarah Billings; A Brief History

Sarah Elizabeth Billings was born in 1837 in Rochester England. She grew up in a single parent home where she lived with her  mother Elizabeth and her grandmother Percy also referred to as Granny. Her father abandoned her and her mother when Sarah was two. She left the other side May 18 1857.