LOL Anders.
Painted Wolf-- I believe the world and the universe are far more complex than any of us comprehend.
I believe in the astral plane, which is one level above physical reality and one step below the vast pool of all knowing Consciousness that is God.
I believe that we exist simultaneously in all three levels of reality (physical, astral, and pure Consciousness/"Heaven") much as we stand in a pool with our feet on the ground, our legs and waist in the water, and with our head in the air. (Except our entire being exists in one or more levels: the Body purely in the physical, the Mind/Personality in the physical AND astral, and the Consciousness that is only part of the vast pool of Consciousness that is God in all three).
We know that in the physical we can actually sense animals, plants, and other organisms. Yet there may be (and probably are) entities on the physical plane we cannot sense, or that only some people can sense: faeries, nature spirits, ghosts, etc.
There may be entities existing only on the Astral Plane. If we were able to consciously "see" on the Astral plane (and I believe some people can), then we would be able to know for sure if there ARE other entities, and possibly even interact with them.
I believe some of these entities may communicate with us in our dreams, especially if we are unable to sense them in the physical world. We may not know that they are guiding us, but they very well may be.
I believe there are probably a wide variety of "other" entities.
There may be "ghosts" of the dead that are basically imprints of their personality/mind in the astral plane that leak into the physical. These are not actual conscious entities, but rather a sort of spiritual signature that can affect the physical world and the astral plane (though more strongly the astral plane).
There are guides that exist purely on the astral level but communicate with us in the physical when our minds are open to the astral plane. They are an entity equivalent to a human or another physical organism, but they are different. Part of the Consciousness that they contain may once have been a part of a physical organism, but these entities exist purely on the astral plane and have never been, in and of themselves, to the physical plane.
There may be nature entities that exist simultaneously on the physical and astral plane (like elementals) that we cannot sense as we would a regular organism because their nature blends in with that of the essense of mother earth. They are conscious, but in a way alien to us.
I believe it is okay to ask favors of these entities, and they may respond, but they also may NOT respond for a variety of reasons: they don't care about us, they see more of reality than us and thus their agenda does not correlate with ours, their consciousness is so utterly alien that they cannot comprehend our questions, or they simply do not hear.