Sleep paralysis.

 

Quick tips
-The shadow is just your darker side. Everybody has it, and you need to accept that you have a dark side to you. Don't become an edgy retard or serial killer, though.
-Ask the shadow. Make sure there are no hidden costs to what it tells you/does, and ask if it's okay to share some knowledge.
-Don't go back to sleep without writing it down if you learn something. You WILL forget, and it's good knowledge to have
-If you fully leave your body, ALWAYS return to it, and don't get lost- unless you're dead. Then you should probably leave it. If you get lost while out of your body in a dream, it's very bad.
-Some of the things that happen are personal to you. Feel free to reply to the thread and i'll help or interpret.

You should only have one shadow person MAX. If there is more than one, take control. Organize them, and ask them A) Who wants to leave and B) which single person is the best one to stay.
Each one represents something bad that you do/don't like about yourself. You have to think about what that is and who they are, and find a way to get rid of them from there. You need to accept it as part of yourself, and learn how to control it- the person should then leave.
+You don't even have to have one. I keep mine around because I like him/her, and I have a pretty good idea who/what it is. Get rid of them all if you want. Just be friends with the one you keep, if you choose to. <Sounds dumb, but DON'T fuck or marry etc the person. If there is a cost to what it gives you, don't accept anything from the person either.

Escaping stationary sleep paralysis
If you find yourself laying down unable to move, don't worry. This one is easy to get out of, but needs a lot of focus.

Stop trying to move, close your eyes, and focus. Try and move your inner body around, eventually getting out of your outer body. It's up to you how you visualize your inner body, and you don't even have to visualize it, just recognize it.
I think of mine as a white shadow, but you can feel it as energy, or see it as something else. As long as you can move it around and control it.

-If you fully leave your body, ALWAYS return to it, and don't get lost- unless you're dead. Then you should probably leave it. If you get lost while out of your body in a dream, it's very bad.

I find my legs to best way to do this, but arms, or head are good points to move around too. Try them all, and see what works best for you.
Don't forget that it is a dream, and you only have a certain amount of control over it. You might not be able to control what you see your inner body as (because your mind already knows) and you might instinctively move a certain part of your body when you start trying to escape. Don't worry about this.

If you escape, or after a certain amount of time, you will either be able to move, or wake up into another dream. This is where the 'shadow person' comes in.
-Shadow people are dicks, and you should avoid them at all costs. This one, and only this one, however, is okay. Read below for everything i've found you can wake up into

You should be able to wake up whenever you or the other person chooses. If not, you're trapped by the person and they have quite a bit of control over you. Fix this.

Fuck my whole fucking mind up sleep paralysis.
This one is a bit funny. I fucking hate it, but when I wake up and think about how I controlled it or what it did, I love it. It's also the most interesting.

So before I go into this, I've tripped out of it a couple of times. I maybe shouldn't say, but it's honestly the best feeling ever associated with dreams. Even better than lucid dreaming! I'll explain after I talk about the main things this type of paralysis does.

In these dreams, you are usually thrown around or can't stop wriggling around while possibly hearing a very loud noise in your head. Personally, I hear a loud, high pitched noise and can't stop wriggling, with my hands on my head. (in dream) this either happens in a familiar place, an exact copy of where you are sleeping, or in pitch black.

You can also be overcome with a certain color, and have two parts of your body fighting.

-Escaping
If the dream is just beginning, think of a dream you would like to go into, a place you want to visit, or something you would like to do. Take control (the longer you're in the dream, the harder it is to control)
Now you might go into a loop or become overcome with a feeling. Like when you get extreme nicotine rush or faint etc. Enjoy the feeling, amplify it, and you will go to stage two.

stage two is going into the dream. this part is the best feeling i have ever experienced. different types are explained below. pick one you like, or get one picked, and enjoy your dream! this is the alternate to being stuck in the paralyzed version of a dream.

If you don't manage to escape the dream, and you fall into the fucked up sleep paralysis, then don't worry. while it is happening, just stop struggling. The noise stops and doesn't hurt, and that's it. I don't do this for very long because it's boring.
Do you know how when it's a lucid dream, but every time you think "omg its a dream" you start to wake up, so you have to know, but not think about it? well, if you know you have to wake up and try to wake up without thinking/trying, then you can, without going back into paralysis.

You can also try to take control of the dream. This is pretty fun. I like to levitate when I take control, but you might want to do something else. All you have to do is be more powerful than the super-powerful thing that is fucking your whole thing up, and sometimes it feels like your head/heart it going to explode, so just take it as far as you can, then take a break.

**Explained below

Shadow people are dicks
Not much to explain here.
Don't fuck with shadow people, trust me. The whole thing is a paradox and/or trap. I like the shadow at the bottom of my bed, because we've known each other for years. It's the only one I talk to/trust, and it's up to you to know if you can trust yours or not.

Tripped out/different stage two's
These are the different ones i have experienced. I've experienced most of these from the age of 6, and it's taken me 13 years to be able to control/not wake up from some of them. It takes time.

Doors-
common. this means you have choices to make, or means that you are making progress into new things.
Mine were just door frames, and there was a familiar voice asking me if I would like to go through them. I said no, and it said "okay, whenever you are ready" and i curled up into a ball and went to sleep again to wake up

Laser pointer-
rare. only experienced with... certain people
I'm not aware of the form I was in here, but I chased a laser pointer around as something was fucking with me. I caught it, then I started being thrown around and shit
still caught it so i'm still gud

Head/Heart-
oh god this one fucking hurt so much
i was choosing between my head and heart, and the other one was getting fucked up. there was a link between the two, and my eyes were sealed shut, and it was painful as fuck dude.
I woke up again, into another dream, and started shouting for help, calling my room mates name. It hurt when I shouted, but I eventually woke up to him shouting "NIGGER" from the next room

Falling through planes-
It was extremely zoomed out, and i was falling through different dreams. each one i was like na lol and fell into another one
in these dreams before now, i would either explode super high into the air and wake up, or fall and wake up.

I hope this helped some people, and I hope to add more to this and rework it soon.
feel free to post below to share your experiences, or for my help. Remember, these dreams take time but it's well worth it.