Even Goodman Brown himself isn't sure that his journey into the wood wasn't just a dream. Even if it was, this journey is a deeply psychological one, in the sense that Goodman has set out to face his deepest fears, to discover his true identity (who he is, who his ancestors were, what is Salem), and he has lost the battle. Whether we choose to understand this story at a metaphorical or literal level, something odd has happened which made Goodman question everything he had known.
