Hi, I'm Geri.
Engineer. Author. Spiritual teacher. Near-death experiencer.
For much of my life, I thought strength meant pushing harder.
Achieve more. Work harder. Take care of everyone. Figure it out. Keep going.
And for a very long time, it worked.
I earned two master's degrees, built a successful career as a navigation systems engineer, and created a life that, from the outside, looked remarkably successful.
But inside, something was telling me I wasn't where I was supposed to be.
I didn't listen.
Eventually, my heart stopped.
And everything changed.
Sometimes life whispers.
Mine eventually had to shout.
In 2015, after years of stress and pushing through the signals my body was giving me, I went into third-degree heart block and cardiac arrest.
What happened next changed the way I understand life, God—and myself.
During my near-death experience, I encountered something I still struggle to fully describe in human language: an overwhelming presence of love and a knowing that went beyond anything I had experienced before.
I came back.
But I didn't come back to continue living the same life.
The veil lifted.
What I had called intuition was not illusion, imagination or the whisper of my ego.
It was connection.
To Spirit.
To a truth as ancient as the breath of God that created the world.
I came back knowing that the inner wisdom I had questioned for so long was real.
HEAR THE STORY
My Near-Death Experience
In this conversation with JeffMara, I share more about my near-death experience, the overwhelming presence of love I encountered, and how it changed the way I understand our connection to Spirit.
THE ENGINEER & THE MYSTIC
I never stopped being an engineer.
My spiritual awakening didn't erase the analytical woman I'd spent a lifetime becoming.
It gave her something new to understand.
As a navigation systems engineer, I spent my career working with systems designed to answer three fundamental questions:
Where am I?
Where am I going?
And how do I get there?
After my near-death experience, I began to realize those were the very same questions I had been asking about my own life.
And slowly, two worlds I had once thought were separate began to reveal themselves as parts of the same whole.
THE MYSTIC
Intuition
Surrender
Spirit
Inner wisdom
Connection
What can only be known
THE ENGINEER
Systems
Structure
Logic
Analysis
Navigation
What can be measured
AND SOMEWHERE BETWEEN THE TWO...
Navigation for the Soul
I discovered that I didn't have to choose between the engineer and the mystic.
I needed both.
Logic could help me understand the system.
Intuition could help me hear the signal.
Structure could help me find the route.
Surrender could allow me to discover where it led.
And that became the foundation of Navigation for the Soul—a way of learning to listen to the signals already within us, recognize when we've wandered away from ourselves, and begin navigating toward the life we're actually meant to live.
Navigation for the Soul became more than a way of understanding my own journey. It became a book.
In Navigation for the Soul, I brought together the engineer's understanding of navigation with what I had come to understand about intuition, spiritual guidance, and our own internal signals—creating a practical framework for recognizing where we are, where we want to go, and how to begin finding our way there.
Engineering and intuition.
Logic and spirituality.
The nervous system and the soul.
Navigation and surrender.
“Navigation for the Soul by Geri Burke — available on Amazon”
CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR
Where Strength Finally Stopped Working
Geri Burke, Contributing Author
Your Story Heals: Successful Coaching
In 2026, I had the privilege of contributing my story to Your Story Heals: Successful Coaching, an anthology featuring legendary motivational speaker Les Brown.
My chapter, “Where Strength Finally Stopped Working,” explores a lesson that took me much of my life to understand:
Strength and surrender are not opposites.
For years, strength meant pushing through. Achieving. Enduring. Holding everything together.
Eventually, I discovered that sometimes the strongest thing we can do is stop pushing—and listen.
My story isn't really about dying.
It's about discovering another way to live.
WHAT I KNOW NOW
You already have a navigation system within you.
You don't need someone else to tell you who you are or where your life should go.
Sometimes, though, the signal gets buried beneath fear, expectations, old patterns, and the noise of simply trying to get through life.
My work is about helping you hear it again.
I bring together the two worlds that shaped my own life — structure and intuition, the nervous system and the soul, practical navigation and spiritual connection — to help you recognize where you are, understand what may be keeping you stuck, and begin moving toward where you truly want to go.
I don't have your answers.
You do.
My job is to help you find your way back to them.
WAYS WE CAN WORK TOGETHER
Sometimes finding your way begins with having someone walk beside you.
01 — NAVIGATION FOR THE SOUL
Find your way back to yourself.
There are times in life when you know something needs to change, but you can't quite see the path forward.
Navigation for the Soul brings together practical structure, intuition, spiritual connection, and the wisdom of the nervous system to help you recognize where you are, understand what may be keeping you stuck, and begin listening again to the guidance already within you.
Books • Online Courses • Private Coaching
02 — INTUITIVE INNOVATION
What if intuition belongs in the room?
Some of our most innovative ideas don't arrive through analysis alone.
Intuitive Innovation with Geri explores what happens when we stop treating logic and intuition as opposing forces—and begin using them together.
Through conversations, stories, and ideas, we'll explore the intersection of intuition, creativity, problem-solving, leadership, and work—and what becomes possible when we learn to trust the intelligence we can measure and the wisdom we can only know.
Podcast • Conversations • Ideas
03 — SPEAKING
Bring your whole intelligence to your work.
For much of my career, I believed my analytical mind and my intuitive nature belonged in separate worlds.
They don't.
I speak to women in engineering, STEM, corporate leadership, and professional organizations about what becomes possible when we learn to access both—the intelligence we can measure and the wisdom we can only know.
Because innovation isn't always about thinking harder.
Sometimes it's about learning how to hear what hasn't been thought yet.
Women's Groups • Engineering & STEM • Corporate Audiences