Accuracy of things not experienced IRL?

I have never had a LD before, but I was wondering about something. If I decide to turn into a cat in a LD, how would I know what that is supposed to feel like. I have heard that people turn into animals and they actually feel like those animals. How would my brain know how that is supposed to feel, since I have never actually turned into a cat IRL?
The same question goes for things like swimming along a coral reef. I have seen coral reefs on TV and movies, but that's not the same as expeciencing them IRL. So then how would a dream of swimming along a coral reef feel real?
Another way of putting it: If I decide to swim along a coral reef in a LD, and then I do it IRL. Would it feel the same in both occasions, or would my RL experience feel more accurate? By accurate, I mean things like the way the water and sand feel, the way the light shimmers, and the details of the differnet types of coral. Would these things be accurate in my LD, even though I have never actually been there IRL?

Hey there, and welcome! :D

Anything you do in a lucid dream which you have never experienced in real life (such as flying) will only be your mind and your imagination giving you its "best guess" as to what it's like. In a lot of cases this may be fairly accurate (especially if you have gathered a lot of infromation on the subject, and have a good imagination), but don't count on it being perfectly accurate.

Good point. I was worried about things seeming fake, but I was underestimating my brain. I established a theory on how my sub-conscience would "portray" a journey to a coral reef using information I know and information I don't know I know.
My brain is "smart" enough to figure out what things should look and feel like, even I haven't actually seen or felt such things. My SB would "collect" information it "knows" about sand, water, light, coral, ect. from things I have experienced IRL and things I have seen on TV, movies, and the net.
I suppose the same concept applies to things like flying, shapeshifting, walking on the moon, ect. My guess is that these things would probably be fairly accurate to the real thing, at least to the point that it matters. Every rock on the moon wouldn't look exactly the same, but the terrain would look the same overall. Even if you can't consciously remember what the moon looks like, you SB does. It could also interprete details that you might never have actually known based on details that you do know, like the way someone looks naked. The result would probably be surprisingly accurate.

Edit: I just read BillyBob's guide to "real" lucid dreams: http://www.dreamviews.com/forum/viewtopic....der=asc&start=0 It helps solidify my theory about the brain's ability to add detail to lucid dreams.

I haven't gotten to the point of real control yet, but from what I hear, when you do something in a dream that you've never done in real life, it is mostly realistic, and is often even better than the real experience.