In June 2025, the Zionist regime exploited geopolitical opportunities and the relative silence of international actors to launch a short-term hybrid attack against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which quickly escalated into a multi-layered cognitive-military war. This study examines the cognitive dimensions of this conflict and Iran's model of perceptual resistance, asking: what were the main components of the cognitive warfare against Iran and how did the Islamic Republic counter them? Using a qualitative grounded theory approach with semi-structured interviews of 15 elite media, security, academic and military figures analyzed through three-stage coding, the research reveals the cognitive warfare operated through three axes: narrative hegemony, public opinion engineering, and decision-making disruption. Iran successfully countered through reverse-narrative construction, media defense, command cohesion and public participation, leading to ten abstract outcomes including breaking enemy narratives, establishing smart deterrence, enhancing public psychological resilience, delegitimizing international institutions, and strengthening Iran's global perceptual capital. The study ultimately presents a three-layer model (attack-defense-resistance) for cognitive security policy-making.