Though obviously subject to the same laws of survival as other life forms on this planet, the thoughts continually passing through man’s brain yet give him the sensation of being partially outside the general canopy of Nature.
As the history of his comments copiously records,
man has always felt himself unique amongst the life on Earth;
physical similarities, certainly with other creatures,
still somehow quite apart from them,
and he has proffered possibilities ranging from him alone having a supernatural source extrinsic to this reality, to him being the only animal with a soul,
(a vague but useful catchall concept);
the indisputable fact simply is that all men with consciousness (and thus thoughts), whether or not they ever in their life think about it in this manner,
feel themselves outside, slightly apart from, the rest of life.
From this on going, natural sensation comes man’s conception-of,
and capacity-to purposefully alter his physical environment;
fish do not build dams because they have no consciousness of water as
a thing separate from themselves  --  such a notion is literally inconceivable.
To rearrange your environment --  with purpose in mind –
a creature must obviously have a mind, and not quite so noticeably,
must feel that it and its environment are two separate and distinct things;
having  thoughts, effortlessly provides this necessary sensation.
 

This much is easily seen but is ultimately irrelevant to the interest of the few,
so now look beyond the pragmatic value and necessity of man feeling himself to be
an outsider to the overall scheme of things on this planet, (commonly referred to as, Nature).
As any intelligent person realizes, the life of man consists not only of an
outer, physical reality, but also of an inner, mental one;
on one level, totally different and separate things,
but overall, a completely integrated, working team.
It is on the first level that man’s feeling of being outside Nature proves so profitable,
but on the second  --  in the world of his inner reality  --   things take a tumble;
and matters which the majority accept placed in the profit column,
a few find a personal expense.
 

The majority deem it proper when men build a dam on a river to provide a
dependable water supply to farms for food production;
it is man, harnessing-the-forces-of-Nature for admirable ends,
and nothing untoward is perceived,
but should the new body of water created above the dam be found to have exterminated a certain plant or animal native only to that area,
critical voices will then be heard which will describe this situation,
(which they condemn), as being the result, not of Nature’s design, but of man’s wants,
as though anything that man can want to do can occur other than as dictated by Nature.
 
 

Living with the sensation, and verbally upheld belief that men can act, feel and think
in ways that are outside of Nature’s intention,
does collective humanity no harm, indeed, to the physical contrary,
but for the few who are off on a non collectively sponsored, inner frolic of their own,
not experiencing the sudden realization of the idea’s clear impossibility,
and maintaining a consciousness of the belief’s relentless impact on all of
human existence, (as humans normally conceive it to be),
keeps them stuck on a dead end street;
trapped on a merry go round,
lost forever in a house of mirrors;
no way out, and no clue how you got in.
 

Ordinary minds are arranged to pay no mind to the situation;
even if it is pointed out to them and they momentary realize it,
they immediately forget it.
Unrelated to education, or I.Q., the normal human mind, (as presently wired),
is not capable of being continually conscious of the impossibility of
man being able to do anything that Nature does not direct him to do;
if it were otherwise, then the life man now lives would be otherwise,
and since it is not, what is a reasonable person to conclude but that
this is how Nature wants it to be...............................................but then --
then we have the minuscule exceptions, which are the few.
These sparse neural mutants are born with a non standard bit of wiring
somewhere in their brain that allows them to realize the impossibility of this
mentally based sensation of being outside of Nature,
although this is not the context in which they normally think of it;
the closest the few usually come is in reading the words of men who
experienced that extraordinary occurrence in their brain commonly called,
waking-up, or enlightenment, wherein, no matter where, no matter when,
they uniformly describe it as suddenly feeling that they & everything else are one;
that all sentiment of separateness from other people vanished,
and all that was left was an overwhelming, most pleasant sensation of
merging with everything else in life.
 

Rather than merely reading & day dreaming about descriptions of such mental states,
why not take a slickster’s approach and use the apparent punch line as the set up;
the goal as the kick-off line;
instead of waiting for, and hoping for the day to arrive when you will have such an awakening experience and enlightening realization  --  why not start there.
Begin right now, (if you have not seen it already),
to look at the fact that no matter what it is that a man can do,
no matter how foolish, or despicable it may seem to you, even to humanity at large,
it was not done  --  in no way could have been done –
other than Nature directed the man to do;
no differently than Nature dictates that water run down hill;
volcanoes erupt; lightning flash,
does she direct each and every act of each and every man,
and certainly --  indeed, most certainly for the special interests of the few –
not excluding every thought that normally comes to a man's mind.

You and every other human and every other living thing on this planet are like you are, and act like you do because life/Nature directs it;
you will never see to the bottom of things without you come to realize that
this entire universe is alive;
what men call, reality is alive,
life itself is alive, and man is an inseparable part therein.
 
 

P.S. Don’t forget now: Nature apparently doesn’t want anyone to see this –
                                                      it’s up to you to overcome her coyness.