Threshold Contact and Sleep Paralysis with Sheila Pryce Brooks

Nov 8, 2025

Dr. Sheila Pryce Brooks, a doctoral researcher from the University of York, explores the fascinating terrain of sleep paralysis and Threshold Contact Experiences. She shares her own harrowing experiences, detailing encounters with various entities and the transition from fear to empowerment. Sheila discusses how cultural folklore interplays with these experiences and draws parallels to UFO contact narratives. Through her research, she argues for a broader understanding of sleep paralysis, suggesting it may reveal hidden dimensions of consciousness.

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INSIGHT

Medical Framing Omits Mystical Elements

Sleep paralysis is conventionally seen as waking while REM atonia persists, causing hallucinations and chest pressure.
Sheila Pryce Brooks says this medical framing omits the broader mystical elements historically reported.

ANECDOTE

From Decades Of Terror To Empowered Contact

Sheila experienced chronic sleep paralysis for over 30 years and describes terror, icy cold sensations, and recurring entities.
She shifted mindset, challenged victimhood, and her episodes transformed into empowered, communicative encounters.

ADVICE

Declare Empowerment Before Sleep

Shift from passive fear to assertive mindset if you suffer chronic episodes; challenge victimhood before sleep.
Sheila found that intentionally declaring empowerment changed the nature of her experiences toward dialogue and OBEs.

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Threshold Contact and Sleep Paralysis with Sheila Pryce Brooks

Dr. Sheila Pryce Brooks received her doctoral degree from the University of York in the United Kingdom, where her dissertation examined the phenomenology of sleep paralysis. Her ongoing research explores Threshold Contact Experiences, bridging science, spirituality, and the paranormal. Dr. Brooks lives and works in Jamaica, offering unique insight as both an experiencer and scholar.

She discusses the phenomenology of sleep paralysis and how it can evolve into what she terms Threshold Contact Experiences. Drawing on both personal and academic research, she explains the transition from terror to empowerment and describes encounters with nonhuman intelligences. Her discussion explores the intersections between sleep states, consciousness, folklore, and transpersonal experience.

New Thinking Allowed host, Jeffrey Mishlove, PhD, is author of The Roots of Consciousness, Psi Development Systems, and The PK Man. Between 1986 and 2002 he hosted and co-produced the original Thinking Allowed public television series. He is the recipient of the only doctoral diploma in “parapsychology” ever awarded by an accredited university (University of California, Berkeley, 1980). He is also the Grand Prize winner of the 2021 Bigelow Institute essay competition regarding the best evidence for survival of human consciousness after permanent bodily death. He currently serves as Co-Director of Parapsychology Education at the California Institute for Human Science.

(Recorded on October 11, 2025)

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