Confused About My Abilities

I am new to the psychic world or at least I just began to research it. When I was a little kid I used to see dark shadows out of the corner of my eye and when I looked again it wasn't there. Also I used to hear voices call my name like a distant voice that had a sort of melody tune. I haven't had these encounters recently I am now 17 years old but around my freshman or sophomore year I awoke in the middle of the night and saw a dark figure run into my wall and disappear I told my mother and she prayed in my room and since then I haven't had any encounters. I'm a little confused as to what these shadows were for a while I thought it was my imagination, but I now know it was something real and why did I continually hear these voices calling my name as a child? I have recently been creating psi balls to develop psychic abilities but I have read stories of entities disrupting the lives of others who practice their psychic abilities. How can I avoid this and protect myself and I have experienced some mild cases of being empathic for example I can usually understand what the quiet kid in class is feeling I can feel more emotion from my anti social peers than the popular ones actually I cannot get any reading from the popular kids. Lastly when I was little I would sleep walk is sleep walking some sort of possession thank you for reading.