Human perception of the physical world basically depends on five senses that correspond in turn to five layers of physical reality. Sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. I think there is one more organ that perceives in turn a different layer of the same reality. That organ is our mind or psyche and it perceives a layer of reality that is purely mental, that coexists with the others, without that necessarily indicating a dichotomy between the physical and the metaphysical. It's the same reality, just a different layer.
We perceive non-physical objects with our mind. We perceive information. For example, we have never seen, heard, smelled, tasted, or touched the number one, but we still know (or so we think) that it exists. It exists in a mental realm. We can look at physical things, such as an apple, and perceive that it has unity (i.e., that the apple is one and not divided into pieces), and it would not be possible for the apple to have unity if the number one did not exist, since unity is the quality of being one. In the same way, we sometimes perceive someone who is brave. Bravery is not a physical quality, it is a quality of the psyche. The body alone is not brave, it is brave what animates the body. And just as with the number one, if bravery itself - that is, the non-physical object - did not exist, there could be no one who is brave. For someone to be brave there must first be bravery as such. How could someone be brave if bravery did not exist?
Truth, reality, existence, wisdom, justice, beauty in some sense. These are all ideas that exist outside our minds. But our minds can perceive them because they reside in a mental reality of the world in which we live. All this information exists in the same world, and our mind picks it up. This non-physical perception is called (as far as I know) intuition. Intuition is the direct perception of a non-physical object. It is mental perception, so to speak.
The realm of the psyche is the unseen layer of reality. And it is divided into several sub-layers, the subtlest of which are beyond the range of our conscious perception. It is just another part of reality. We are strongly influenced by it.
I think that not only ideals make up this layer of reality, but also our thoughts, feelings, true intentions, ulterior motives, and in short, everything that happens on a psychic level. If we feel fear, if we feel love, if our mind is clouded with thoughts, all that happens in the same reality. It is the psychological underlayer of what is going on all around us.
Beyond our conscious perception.
Our mind is not even aware of everything that is going on, it is a lot of raw information, and most of the clues are perceived at an unconscious level. It happens through our intuition.
It is all the psychological complexity that underlies the appearances of physical reality.
Much of this information is not consciously perceived either because it is not necessary or because it contradicts and does not please the ego. Our conscious self does not like it and does not want to perceive it. We don't want to realize and we don't want to perceive that, we prefer to ignore the subtle and focus on what is happening on a gross level.
If I whisper pleasant words in your ear while trying to manipulate you, your mind perceives the contradiction and chooses what to believe, you can believe in my good intentions, or you can believe in the manipulation, but in the end, you will probably choose what pleases you the most. It's like, subliminal messages are just that, basically, a psychic suggestion that differs with physical appearance. Like when we were kids and were told about Santa Claus, deep down we knew the truth, but we chose what to believe and intentionally ignored information.
Our conscious self does not recognize the truth until it is smacked in the face with it (and sometimes not even then).
Dreams, a gateway.
When we dream, since we have no sensory input, our mind is in direct contact with that part of our psyche and reality. Dreams, usually (and as far as I know), are a representation of what is happening on a psychic or psychological level. They show us things that we know deep down but that our ego refuses to accept. They are not meant to be interpreted literally, as their language is symbolic, but it is an understandable symbolism.
I am not talking about weird, supernatural dreams, for those fall into another category. And probably most of the dreams really look like psychological residues. But through the study of dreams, we can come to understand this part of ourselves, to know ourselves deeply, and to unveil a layer of reality that we had not seen. Our mind captures many things from reality, we are just not always aware of it. When dreaming we have access to unfiltered information.
Again, I will not claim that it applies to all dreams, but it does apply to a large part of them.
It is only thorny because it is information that our mind grasps but that we refuse to assimilate consciously. Only when our conscious self goes to sleep can we expose ourselves to such a reality. It is not even necessary to study them in depth, often, simply by remembering them, as time goes by we can come to understand them.
So remembering them is the first step because many times we don't (maybe our conscious mind doesn't even want that). And I think the more at peace we are within ourselves, the more likely this is to happen. Then there are the vivid dreams, which, in my opinion, have the most psychological significance.
Whatever we are perceiving in the dream, somehow, is psychologically happening in reality, we just have to understand how. The dream is then a graphic representation of something that is happening on a mental level. It is symbolic for the very fact that what is happening on a psychological level, not being physical, is difficult to represent visually.
The meaning often does not have to be sought, it is more like, it must be intuitive, as we are able to understand the language in which our mind communicates. Some people methodically interpret their dreams, and although I don't do that, I don't rule out that it is possible to do it satisfactorily. For me, it's more like myths, you just contemplate them until, at some point, you can grasp them.
The dreams otherworld is really a representation of what is happening psychologically around us but we have not realized it. It is the reality that we have not wanted to accept. And by observing it carefully we get to know our own psyche, and the reality itself.
Our dreams are just a way of directly accessing that part of reality that is mental, for they are a direct manifestation of it. But all the time we are receiving information from reality through our mind, we just have to pay careful attention and be sufficiently aware.
The more aware we are, the greater our perception of this information will be and the deeper and more accurate our intuition will be.