If you like art, you'll enjoy
Searching for Carroll Beckwith. A police detective undergoes a hypnosis session and recalls a previous life. The memories are so vivid that he decides to see if this person Carroll Beckwith really existed.
Trained and employed as a detective, Captain Snow has the skills to document such a case and he does. He finds he was a portrait artist. He was not a particularly famous artist but he was recognized for his portrait work in that lifetime. In the book is a picture of him as an artist and he does indeed resemble pictures of the artist Carroll Beckwith. Also, in the picture section of the book is a photo of him visiting the grave of Carroll Beckwith.
Another exceptionally well documented book is
Soul Survivor. This is the case of little James Leininger, who in a previous life piloted a plane that went down in a WWII attack on supply lines at Chichi Jima. This case has been well publicized. If you put in "20 20 James Leininger reincarnation" at youtube, you can turn up a show they did on the family's investigation of his previous life.
I just finished reading the book and the knowledge this little kid carried over from one lifetime to another is astounding. He has an incredible knowledge of airplanes and in particular, the peculiarities of WWII bombers.
So yes, it is carried over.
For more info on this case, see this site:
http://www.soulsurvivor-book.com/I have learned that talents cultivated in previous life may not necessarily be used in the current lifetime if they do not assist in the goals a person sets out for themselves. For example, I have an unused musical talent. I took piano lessons as a child but after the first lesson, pretty much figured musical notation out on my own. I could sight read and taught myself four other instruments. At the age of 11, I was a church organist, playing a pipe organ with stops and three or four keyboards plus the footboards, not to mention the carillons. I hardly ever practiced and would walk in a minute before the services started and sight read the hymns as well as the liturgy.
But as an adult, I never play. I can, however, sit down at a piano and again sight read any piece of music with ease.
So the talent is there, but if it doesn't facilitate the growth lesson, it just sort of sits there, unused.
Cher