In Conversation With Talking Spirit

Tracy Sharman is the co-founder of Talking Spirit

The decision to book an oracle card reading in October 2022 changed the course of Sue Pritchard’s life. Here she speaks with Tracy Sharman, co-founder of Talking Spirit in Kent, who inspired Sue’s belief in her childhood dream of becoming an author.

I believe we meet people for a reason, and I will never forget the first time I met Tracy Sharman from Talking Spirit.

I almost cancelled the appointment several times. I was apprehensive and worrying I might end up in some strange place from which I couldn’t return. As a muggle who was afraid of being fooled, I’d only half-heartedly accompanied my mum to psychic events after my dad had died, and was easily spooked by inexplicable phenomena.

At the same time though, deep down, I knew I was looking for something else in my life. I just didn’t have a clue what it was.

Follow Your Dreams

Walking into the cosy little room at Talking Spirit, on a beautiful morning in October 2022, I couldn’t hide my surprise when seeing Tracy for the first time. I honestly thought I’d come to the wrong place. Looking as if she’d stepped off the pages of a stylish fashion magazine, she shattered my pre-conceived notions of what a ‘typical’ psychic should look like.

Unsure of what to expect, I nervously sat down for my first oracle card reading. What I really didn’t expect though, was for Tracy to steer my life off on a magical adventure, helping me believe I can catch my abandoned childhood dream of becoming an author.

Empowering

Tracy is the co-founder of Talking Spirit in West Malling, Kent. It’s a spiritual well-being business she runs with co-founder Clare Teale, along with a team of spiritual practitioners who offer heart-centred clarity, healing, and direction for those in need.

After meeting at the Arthur Findlay College in Stansted, which specialises in spiritualism and psychic sciences, Tracy and Clare clicked together straight away.

“We both realised we wanted to show others that connecting to spirit and our intuition isn’t just for those giving a demonstration up on the stage,” Tracy says. “It’s for everybody.”

Adding that she really believes in empowerment, Tracy admits she’s uncomfortable when spiritual work becomes ego driven, with some trying to claim all the glory for themselves.

“For me it’s about helping to change the world and showing people what they can do,” she said. “Showing people that they have so much potential within them has a wonderful ripple effect. If someone realises they are this amazing soul, they can go on and show others they are amazing souls too. It creates a beautiful domino effect.”

We’re all capable of this, Tracy believes, because we all have a sixth sense. It was something we used thousands of years ago but for some reason is now viewed as being supernatural.

“And I really don’t understand why,” she says. “It’s one of our senses. The same as our sense of smell or taste. We can all tune into it by recognising that and practising and trusting it. I think we put too much emphasis on our brains for being right. But our gut brain, our intuition, is far more powerful.”

Although we all have this intuitive knowledge, we often forget it’s there, needing someone else to point out what we’re capable of. And Tracy feels honoured to be able to teach people how to rediscover this.

“My greatest teacher was Pauline Soulsby,” Tracy remembers fondly. “She was our astrology person at Talking Spirit. She was so wise and yet so dry and smart with her sense of humour. Through astrology and her own beautiful self, she helped me to understand people more. She helped me understand what people are made of astrologically, and why they can be the way they are.

“Pauline also had a beautiful saying of: Do you want to be right, or do you want to be happy? She was my greatest teacher,” Tracy added.

Greatest Lesson

If Pauline was her greatest teacher, what has been Tracy’s greatest lesson in life so far?

“You cannot be responsible for how everybody feels,” she answers without hesitation. “You cannot be responsible for what goes on in people’s minds, and you cannot be responsible for how people take your words.

“I learnt not so long ago that I am a good person,” Tracy says. “And so how someone interprets what I say is through their own filter, not mine. As long as I come from a place of a good heart, then I can sleep at night.”

Coming Out

Until my own life was turned upside down when my dad died suddenly in 2009, I’d honestly never been interested in the spiritual world, and was easily spooked by inexplicable phenomena. As everyone has different reasons behind why and when they become spiritually curious, I asked Tracy if it was something that had always captured her attention.

“I’ve always been interested in mediumship and spirit and those sorts of things,” she replied. “I’d occasionally go to a spiritual centre with my mum when I was younger, just to watch a mediumship demonstration. Then when I was 14 I saw the spirit of my grandad at home. He stayed with me for the rest of the evening. I really couldn’t deny spirit’s existence after that.”

Tracy then went on to set up Talking Spirit in 2007, a time she admits when spirituality “was still considered quite woo-woo”. Does she believe things have changed in recent years though?

“They certainly have,” she says. “It may have been my own insecurities or nervousness about coming out of the spiritual closet, but I wasn’t able to talk about it so openly back then. Kids these days talk about the universe and energy just like that, whereas we were more of a secret society in the hangover days of burning witches,” she laughs. “Nowadays though I’m more confident about it, and maybe people are more open to it as well.”

Amazing World

“My journey with Talking Spirit started out as a desire to really inspire others to look at this amazing world of spirit,” Tracy goes on to explain. Although when having to describe what her job entails, she admits she still finds it quite tricky.

“I finally settled on calling it a spiritual well-being business,” she said. “We don’t just offer readings; it’s therapy and life guidance as well. And hands down the best part of my job is seeing people thrive.

“It’s all about helping people understand who they really are, realising their potential, and distancing themselves from any historical limiting beliefs and past trauma. It’s about helping them find the courage to finally say no, this is who I am now, and this is what I can achieve. It’s so powerful,” Tracy says.

As anyone who runs a business knows, it takes a lot of hard work and people often can’t see what goes on behind the scenes. The most challenging part for Tracy though, is working with clients who are so low and have experienced so much trauma in their lives.

“You have to stay neutral but at the same time your heart breaks for them,” she almost sighs.

So, is this how spirituality can be used in a positive way, helping people in their everyday lives?

“Yes,” Tracy agrees. “Spirituality is about understanding who you really are, unlearning all the things life has shown you and thrown at you. It’s about understanding what’s real and what’s not. As humans we really struggle to find or remember our own identities. We often get all these labels attached to us and start to believe them – regardless of whether they are true or not. So for me, spirituality is about finding yourself underneath all of this and connecting back to your soul.”

And it all begins from the inside out.

“Instead of looking outside for the answers all the time,” Tracy carries on explaining, “spirituality can help you focus inwards. It gives you the strength to believe you have your own guidance, because we all have an inner compass helping us to find our way through life. When we clear the outside distractions, when we clear the brain noise away, not only do we feel better within ourselves, but we can also see our path more clearly too.”

Rather than reacting to it, Tracy believes spirituality helps us to feel our way through life. It helps us focus on being a good person, whatever that may mean for you, rather than telling everyone else how they should live their lives.

Everyday Magic

In the few years I’ve known her, one thing I’ve noticed about Tracy is that she talks about magic all the time.

“I do believe magic exists in our everyday life,” she says. “But we do have to look for it and believe it’s there to see it. I always tell my daughter if you believe it, it’s real.”

“There are times in our lives when it can be hard to evoke magic, because we’re not feeling that playful childlike energy when we can see it more freely,” Tracy admits. When we can see it though, she describes magic as being in the form of more spiritual signs such as feathers, birds, butterflies, and the entertaining phenomena of table tipping.

“The first time I ever saw table tipping it was like something from the Fantasia cartoon,” Tracy laughs. “We literally watched this table walk sideways across the room, and leave, without any of our fingers touching it. We were gob smacked. This has stuck in my mind ever since and I always remember it as being pretty damn impressive.

“It is quite magical to watch a room full of people laughing and having so much joy in connecting to spirit,” she continues. “And it’s even more magical how spirit can make things like table tipping happen.”

In comparison, Tracy also believes magic can be the more subtle everyday things, such as someone saying what you needed to hear at the right moment, or that connection with an animal when they rest their head on your lap or jump up for a cuddle when they know you need it.

“And let’s face it,” Tracy adds with a smile, “coffee is magic as well. Whatever you believe magic to be though, the more you look for it,” she says, “the more you will find it.”

A Normal Way Of Life

Tracy’s love of magic has inspired my own spiritual and writing journeys, and now one of my daily mantras is to always be a seeker of everyday magic.

“I love that this is becoming pretty much a normal way of life,” she says, reflecting on her own spiritual journey. “Spirituality is blending into the well-being side of life more.”

Although meditation has been around for thousands of years, some people prefer to go to what Tracy calls the more user-friendly well-being activities, such as a gong bath, where they can still experience spiritual things, but don’t have to look inside themselves that deeply. Maybe they just feel safer doing it this way, she adds.

“But there’s still time,” Tracy concludes. “I think there’s been such a huge leap around everything to do with spirituality. In the 18 years I’ve been at Talking Spirit there’s been so much progress. And now looking to the future, I’m so excited about what’s going to happen over the next 18 years.”

To find out more see www.talkingspirit.co.uk. You can also follow the Talking Spirit team on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok.

Tracy believes connecting to spirit and our intuition is for everyone