Pre internet and without TV
One of the things I did that may have helped me along the way, was studying and memorizing as much as I could from 2 main occult books. I understood that my dream world was connected to something manipulating me. So rather than reading dream interpretation books I basically decided on 2 objective sources.
1. The Dictionary of Symbols translated from French
It gave explanation about many symbols in many cultures and their possible meanings. I went through alphabetically as well as by groups is., animals, objects, shapes.
2. The Magician's Companion
At first this book seemed hokey to me. Eventually others around me took to the book and I purchased 3-4 of them. It has many basic explanations of different magical systems and charts as well as old languages for cryptology.
Because we had Atari & TI (Texas instruments) back in the day e.g.en I had to learn basic programming and tried flight simulation games...iow no WWw or Wikipedia. Something I found in elementary school that helped me was a very intense angelic diagram in the Encyclopedia Brittanica. It showed the multiple levels of the angelic world and gave a lengthy explanation.
I had read a lot of Isaac Asimov too as a child (on my mom's library card). His writing helped with multiple perspectives for me to rationalize some of my experiences. My reading comprehension was high, so this type of reading was easy for me.
