Various esoteric teachings that speak of "harmony with nature" adhere to this view of the essence of man. They consider man exclusively as a part of nature, which, in fact, differs little from materialism. Even though they see "nature" wider than materialistic philosophy, seeing in it, in addition to the visible, also invisible "levels" of varying degrees of fantasy. The essence of this does not change - after all, the secret of the universe with them is that everything is one, everything is just different forms of existence of one energy, this energy is simply "subtle" and "gross".
They speak beautifully about the essence of man - that it is "divine". We just need to find this God in ourselves and identify with him. However, it turns out that everything in the world has the same "divine essence". This philosophy does not make a difference even between living and inanimate nature - not only animals, but also a stone along the road have the same divine essence. The task of man in these teachings is to merge with nature, which is understood as the entire material world, as fully and harmoniously as possible. It's even more radical than considering yourself an animal ...
How to merge with nature? It means getting rid of everything that interferes on this path - but self-consciousness and reason interfere, desires interfere, will too ... What potential can we reveal with this understanding of the essence of man? It's even difficult to say what kind of potential the stone has. But it is obvious that with such a view, many human traits are abolished as completely unnecessary (more on this in the article on the essence of esotericism). And certainly there can be no question of any uniqueness, individuality. You're just part of nature! Even relationships with other people in this system appear as a mechanical interaction of impersonal "energies" that they conduct through themselves. Nothing personal, in general - just physics :)
