It's all real. Everything you've heard.. even the "children's stories" of Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. I wish I could convince people, but I know how. I had..something as dramatic as an NDE happen to me, and it completely changed my life over 20 years ago. But there's no way I can convince anyone.. or can even talk about it anymore, for that matter. Many Christians don't generally want to hear about these things, no different than atheists, sadly. I've been written off as crazy or deluded either way. Sometimes I wish I wasn't this different. I still can't make sense of why I had this privilege and not everyone does. I did nothing to receive it, and see so many others struggling without it.. and I wish I could just give them what I had. I take no pride in it. It frustrates me to see so many struggling to grasp what was given to me so freely. But there's a great chasm between me and many others. I don't know how to cross it.
That said, I'm not someone who simply relies on private revelation either: One of first things I heard was no different than St. Justin or St. Augustine, when they heard a voice say "Read". Read the scriptures and believe them.