At the research presentation and synthesis meeting of the Food Spirit project held on March 7th, Hans van Willenswaard shared an international perspective on the concept of spiritual health, emphasizing its crucial role in holistic well-being. While the World Health Organization (WHO) has historically placed less emphasis on spiritual health compared to its actual value, there has recently been a growing recognition of its importance. According to Hans, among the four key dimensions of health—physical, mental, social, and spiritual—the spiritual aspect is in fact the most essential. It serves as the internal compass and driving force that guides our actions and sustains our physical body from within.
Spiritual health is the ability to connect the tangible and the intangible, bridging micro, meso, and macro levels—such as recognizing not only the plate of rice a child is eating, but also understanding the entire food system behind it.
Hans emphasized that we are now living in an increasingly complex world filled with conflicting ideas and perspectives. In such times, spiritual health becomes a powerful tool to cultivate self-control and clarity of purpose. To navigate this complexity, he proposed the application of three core principles from Theory U: open head, open heart, and open will. For example, even a simple act such as teaching a child to plant and care for a tree requires thoughtful attention (open head), genuine care (open heart), and a determined commitment to growth (open will).
In the philosophy of permaculture—a design approach for sustainable agriculture—food plays a vital role as a medium that reconnects people with nature. It serves not just as nourishment but as a bridge that invites deeper reflection and transformation in how we relate to the world around us.
This transformation often unfolds in three stages of personal growth:
- EGO – the stage where humans see themselves as superior to other life forms, dominating rather than coexisting.
- ECO – the shift toward recognizing ourselves as part of the ecosystem, deeply embedded in the web of life and the food chain.
- SEVA – the final, more awakened stage, where one becomes a servant of the Earth, dedicating oneself to the care, restoration, and protection of nature—not out of duty, but out of reverence and love.
In this journey, food becomes a tangible expression of care and connection. As the saying goes, “Food makes care visible.” Through food, we learn to care—truly and visibly—for each other, for our communities, and for the living world that sustains us.
Our current global environmental crisis has reached a point where we are operating in the negative—or at best, merely breaking even.
Humankind continues to consume energy recklessly and generate pollution without pause. To rise above this state and truly regenerate our ecosystems, we must come together with a shared purpose.
We need to co-create a social design that supports the healing of our planet—
by spreading knowledge, fostering deep understanding, and cultivating care. This includes inspiring the younger generation to dedicate themselves to this collective mission.
Only through such heartfelt commitment and strong social momentum can we build the kind of transformative force
that has the power to shift us from mere survival to true restoration—restoring life to the Earth, and meaning to our way of living.
By applying the three core principles of Theory U—Open Will, Open Mind, and Open Heart—we can engage in communication that truly reaches into the depth of another person’s inner world.
It allows us to move beyond surface behaviors, past habitual patterns, and into the deep structures of the human psyche—down to the base of the metaphorical iceberg submerged beneath the sea.
To understand and evaluate the driving forces of spiritual health and consciousness, we need a paradigm of measurement that bridges the tangible and the intangible.
Not one that merely reduces and fragments data, nor one that drifts too far into the abstract and unmeasurable—but something in between.
This might include holistic science, or the capacity of spiritual health as integrative thinking—an ability to perceive and synthesize meaning beyond conventional frameworks.
From this space of open, creative inquiry, we can evaluate with clarity, and co-create prototypes
that expand the possibilities of a universal, deeply beneficial model of spiritual health for the future.