August 28, 2024 • 14 mins
In this solo episode, Graham Skidmore shares his insights and learnings from observing nature and animals. He discusses the concept of intelligent design, highlighting how every element of the natural world serves a purposeful role.
Through examples like chipmunks and squirrels, Graham explores the universal intelligence and problem-solving abilities demonstrated by non-human beings.
He emphasizes the importance of expanding our own consciousness and learning from the curiosity, play, and adaptability exhibited in nature. Graham also recounts an experience with a duck's injured foot, using it to illustrate how animals can teach us about the importance of proper environments and diets.
Overall, this episode encourages listeners to connect more deeply with the natural world and find wisdom in the lessons it provides.
ABOUT THE PODCAST Welcome to Understanding the Science of You, a podcast founded by Graham Skidmore and EnGen. It's purpose is to help you discover untapped aspects of yourself and alternative paths to personal freedom and empowerment outside of conventional systems.
We want listeners to accept responsibility for creating change in the areas they desire. Creating change is done through personal contribution, not creating controversy.
We hope listeners will be inspired to create change within their lives after listening to our podcast because they will feel:
... Someone is fighting for them ... Cared for ... Heard ... Understood ... Hopeful ... Valued ... Appreciated ... Loved by the Universe
By living an authentic and healthy life of joy, kindness and compassion to demonstrate what's possible, our listeners will provide inspiration for others to challenge their limiting beliefs to start the movement.
To learn more about the podcast, visit scienceofyoupodcast.com.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to another episode ofUnderstanding the Science of You,
where this one is going to be asolo one, where I just wanted to
share some of my thoughts as apiggyback to my conversation with
Ruby's interview as well, then asour subsequent follow up, where we
did 'Ask A Squirrel Session,' whichwas a ton of fun. So what I wanted
(00:22):
to kind of share was with to sharewas what I learned through nature
and through animals, right? Andit's been a little bit, you know,
anyway, so that's and that's kindof what, what I just wanted to
share with you today, and it'ssharing my understanding the
science of myself with you, inhopes that that can help as well.
And so one of the things that youknow, watching and observing that
(00:44):
really became obvious to me isreally, well, at least obvious,
from my perspective, is theintelligent design behind
everything, right? Whether it belooking at the grass and
understanding, how does Cloverdecide when to pop up, and
understanding, I think it's clover,and that clover is what is also
(01:08):
used to increase the nitrogen inthe soil, to improve the soil, so I
didn't do anything, nothing that Ihad to do with anything that do. I
had to do that. All of a sudden,clover just showed up in my yard,
right?
And so when you start to recognizethat, and you start to see that
every animal, everything you knowhas its purpose, and some of them
(01:29):
may, you know, seem harsh or somepeople can say nature is cruel. But
I've come to learn that nature isnot cruel. Nature is teaching and
look and adversity, you know, is atremendous learning tool. So
anyway, so that what I what I thebig thing then that as I started
(01:51):
watching, observing, this was thatI came to my own personal belief
that everything is just governed byintelligent design. I'm not talking
about a religion or a dogma or aphilosophy or anything else, just
simply that everything waspurposefully created and designed
to work together, to complementeach other, to learn from each
(02:11):
other. So everything has its ownpurpose and its outcome, right, as
well as that. You know, all of ushave, you know, humans are not the
only conscious and sentient beingson earth, right? Many animals fall
into that category. And so, but inorder to kind of recognize that it,
(02:39):
you know, it took me understandinga bit more of being able to come to
my own understanding of universalintelligence.
And so I'll give an example of auniversal intelligence that I was
by my little chipmunks, right? SoI'm fortunate that I can spend my
more, you know, two to three hourseach morning, just hanging outin my
backyard and feeding squirrels orbirds or chipmunks. And you know,
(03:03):
different animals have, you know,they've all got their own different
personalities, and some are moreengaging than others. And the
chipmunks tended to be the, youknow, very skittish. But one
started to emerge as, you know,recognizing that when I would put,
you know, open up the door, andthat wasn't meant to shoo them
away, but it meant that food wascoming, right? So he stayed brave,
and then that bravery followed towhat Iwould be in the garage, andI
(03:28):
looked over, and I saw the littlechipmunk staring at me. And, you
know, and so then I threw him anut, in which case he went grab the
nut and went back. And so in this,in this very brief moment, what I
recognized was, right, thischipmunk demonstrated a desired
outcome, which was to receive innourishment, right. Then, you know,
(03:48):
had individualized actions andintent to support that, right??
So recognized me, however it is,right, in the garage, came up,
stood there looking at me, waitinguntil there was some sort of
acknowledgement of each other'sexistence, and then waited to see
how I reacted, and in anticipationof what it wanted, which was me to
(04:09):
toss it food, it recognized metossing it food, then grab it and
went on its way right. And thenrinse and repeat. And so when I
started to think aboutunderstanding a universal
intelligence as being purposeful,as creative, as problem solving, as
(04:31):
being as being able to comprehend,right? You know, I watched animals
exhibit their own scientific kindof method in the feeding, right?
Especially with the squirrels. Isaw they would recognize a door
open, and I'd watch them look upand around, and I'd say they'd say,
recognize a door frame and how itopens. And then I would watch them
(04:51):
retrace their steps to try tounderstand some sort of causation
or relationship between them, theiraction or movement, and the door
opening and food popping out, andhow that would be. And then so then
trying to for them to figure out,you know, can they control the
situation? Do they have the abilityto control when food comes out? Is
it random? Is it not random? Andthen watch them adapt and learn how
(05:12):
to become comfortable with thatsystem was quite fascinating.
And to watch each of them learn ontheir learn at their own different
times and some desire more, youknow, will come closer, more
engagement than others. Andgenerally speaking, they will, you
know, wait until the door closesbefore approaching food, right? And
so again, continuing to demonstrateindividual thought and
(05:35):
comprehension, which, like, I meanI'm going to say this humorously,
but also because it frightens mewhat I see out there. I go to, I go
to a cash register to check out,and it's challenging to get
somebody to look up and acknowledgeme from their own phone, right? So
the demonstration of, you know,desired outcome, intent and
purposefulness of action, etc., youknow, I see a lot more of, I see a
(05:58):
lot more of intelligencedemonstrated that way. You know, in
some cases, I'm looking at mybackyard and through my own
personal experiences. So we'll,we'll address that one, but that's
anyway, that's why we're talkingabout this stuff, right? Is for
those that are that, are those thatare looking to live life more
purposefully? Well, we're trying toprovide all different reasons and
(06:18):
ways to do that.
So anyway, so do understanding thatintelligence differently, then that
allowed me to expand into, 'Okay,now I can kind of step in other
people's shoes, what appears to becruel, I can understand as part of
a learning process,' and I canunderstand, start to see how, look,
(06:39):
as part of this intelligent design,right, by understanding what makes
us the same, it makes it makes itmuch easier to find win-win
solutions to problems, as opposedto finding solutions based on who's
bigger, who's stronger, who hasbigger weapons, you know, that go
boom, etc. And so one of so some ofwhat I saw, of what drew, of what
(07:04):
made us all together, was everysentient being possesses their own
personality, survival instincts,values and beliefs. Values and
beliefs can be, you know, a commonsimilarity is, is the is the
outlook towards young, and the carefor young and an understanding of
(07:26):
perspective of you know, are allyoung expected to make it, not make
it, and nurture for the and hownurturing occurs for those that may
be experiencing physical or otherdifficulties compared to siblings,
right? Look and through, allthrough experiential learning,
we're all trying, w're all focusedon increasing our intelligence,
(07:46):
learning how to become betterproblem solvers, learning how to
be, learning how to understand,learning how to expand
consciousness, our ownconsciousness through expanding our
ability to comprehend. Right,expanding our increasing our
intelligence, right. Wanting tofeel safe, right, I think every --
we all desire to be able to walkoutside and go about a business and
(08:07):
not have to worry and looking overour shoulder and having a fear
based outcome, right? We all wantto be able to just focus on doing
what we want to do and beingcareful and joyfully explore.
And we all desire to live as anindividual, along with contributing
to the survival advancement of ourspecies, right? Whether or not you
know we agree with the species, youknow we is separate from
(08:31):
understanding why that specieswants to exist, why species is
having its experiences to furtherthe knowledge and the evolution of
its species. We can all relate tothat, and being able to relate to
that means we shouldn't be there'sno reason to hold hold it against
anybody, against it, againstanybody, because we're all doing it
right, right? And ultimately, thenif we're all doing it, and if we're
(08:53):
all recognizing that we're allworking it out, meaning working it
out, meaning, you know,understanding how to be us and how
to live in harmony with oursurroundings and our place in the
circle of life and our circle inthe cosmos and in energies learning
how to learn from each other. Well,then we can also all learn how to
live free and be happy, right? Ithink everybody desires to live
(09:14):
free and be happy, right? And if wethink about when we all learn best
is we can really learn from naturehere, which is living a life of
play and curiosity, right? I mean,squirrels are a magnificent example
of being able to live a life ofplay and curiosity.To sit back and
(09:37):
watch them and watch them formtheir hypotheses and then test them
out and to test boundaries has justbeen, has been truly fascinating to
me, and eye opening.
And so when it comes to, you know,what else do we have to learn from
But the other one was much morefascinating and eye opening to me,
(10:13):
each other? You know, I wanted tokind of share two last stories to
(10:33):
wrap up with. You know, one of themwas, I had to start questioning
which happened with a duck. And so,you know, I was really excited when
duck started showing up. And all ofa sudden I noticed one of the ducks
had a bad foot. And, you know, andof course, I got really, you know,
(10:53):
some of my produce, right? And mynuts, because animals, you know are
bothered and sad. I never like tothink to see anything suffering.
And so I thought to myself, gosh,you know, this can be said, I wish
there was something I could do tohelp the duck. I wonder what
happens with, you know, to this. Iwonder if that was like a snapping
turtle, of what it was. And so fromthere, I felt drawn to Google, you
(11:14):
have got tremendous instincts andunderstanding, you know, the health
know, ducks and broken feet, youknow. And it came to find out that
that was very common. And then, youknow, I'll call it, you know, you
want to call it intuition, a sixthsense, you know, consciousness,
expansion of consciousness, talkingto me, whatever it might be, it
then drew me to recognize that, youknow, in Google, it talks about
(11:34):
of foods, right? And so when Iprovide nuts or vegetables and the
ducks. This happens as a result ofnot being in the proper
surroundings, potentially nothaving the right diet, and also as
a result of not landing properly,right. Well, and so well, getting a
bum foot certainly is a greatdeterrent to learn how to land
squirrels that will sniff them awayand not eat them, I have to wonder
(11:55):
properly, without a doubt, right?Also understanding you know
surroundings and making sure thatyou're that being fluid, and
understanding when it'to stay inyour surroundings, when to leave
your surroundings, and recognizingwhat surroundings are conducive to
your best self is, you know, is agreat way for your you know, your
foot not working properly to giveyou that type of feedback. And the
other one is diet, right? And thisis where man plays and comes into
just how much stuff has beensprayed on these things, right?
(12:16):
harmony with this is, look, if thesurroundings are right and the
ducks are laying properly, well, wegot to wonder, like, is there
something that we're doing that'schanging the diet, that is having
an adverse effect, right? And soare the the ducks, and what's
happening with the ducks, you know,a symptom of something else larger,
And, you know, do I need to, youknow, wash them better, or do I
(12:37):
and that's drawing our attention tothat, right? And so being able to
have that connectivity with, youknow, the different energies of the
consciousness, to understand if,when, when we're doing something
that we need to be, that theanimals actions are actually
teaching us.
need -- Do I need to, or is therejust a problem with there's so much
And so that opened up thatexperience with ducks and
(12:57):
recognizing both how all animalshave got their different challenges
that are wired into theirexperiences, to help learn and
shape their survival instincts andexpand their evolution and ability
stuff being spread all over,pesticides and everything
to adapt and evolve. Right? We all,we all have those things. And so in
(13:19):
that respect, I started torecognize nature as no longer being
cruel but being as a tremendousteacher. Right? And let's face it,
you know, adversity, pain,challenges is a phenomenal teacher
everywhere, that it's just, youknow, it's just a sad reality. I
and deterrent. And so anyway,thanks for you know, let me share
with you the different ways thatI've had the pleasure of being
(13:41):
taught by, you know, through natureand animals and has vastly enriched
don't know. I'm still learningabout that one, in my own testing period.
my living experience.
And I also want to share that thisthat we're all meant to be able to
understand and experience thesethings right? Then that's why I
share this. And so hopefullysomething I've said helps somebody
(14:02):
else to better connect to theirsurroundings and enjoy and improve
their quality of life as well. Sohave yourselves a phenomenal,
awesome week.
Welcome to another episode ofUnderstanding the Science of You,
where this one is going to be asolo one, where I just wanted to
share some of my thoughts as apiggyback to my conversation with
Ruby's interview as well, then asour subsequent follow up, where we
did 'Ask A Squirrel Session,' whichwas a ton of fun. So what I wanted
(00:22):
to kind of share was with to sharewas what I learned through nature
and through animals, right? Andit's been a little bit, you know,
anyway, so that's and that's kindof what, what I just wanted to
share with you today, and it'ssharing my understanding the
science of myself with you, inhopes that that can help as well.
And so one of the things that youknow, watching and observing that
(00:44):
really became obvious to me isreally, well, at least obvious,
from my perspective, is theintelligent design behind
everything, right? Whether it belooking at the grass and
understanding, how does Cloverdecide when to pop up, and
understanding, I think it's clover,and that clover is what is also
(01:08):
used to increase the nitrogen inthe soil, to improve the soil, so I
didn't do anything, nothing that Ihad to do with anything that do. I
had to do that. All of a sudden,clover just showed up in my yard,
right?
And so when you start to recognizethat, and you start to see that
every animal, everything you knowhas its purpose, and some of them
(01:29):
may, you know, seem harsh or somepeople can say nature is cruel. But
I've come to learn that nature isnot cruel. Nature is teaching and
look and adversity, you know, is atremendous learning tool. So
anyway, so that what I what I thebig thing then that as I started
(01:51):
watching, observing, this was thatI came to my own personal belief
that everything is just governed byintelligent design. I'm not talking
about a religion or a dogma or aphilosophy or anything else, just
simply that everything waspurposefully created and designed
to work together, to complementeach other, to learn from each
(02:11):
other. So everything has its ownpurpose and its outcome, right, as
well as that. You know, all of ushave, you know, humans are not the
only conscious and sentient beingson earth, right? Many animals fall
into that category. And so, but inorder to kind of recognize that it,
(02:39):
you know, it took me understandinga bit more of being able to come to
my own understanding of universalintelligence.
And so I'll give an example of auniversal intelligence that I was
by my little chipmunks, right? SoI'm fortunate that I can spend my
more, you know, two to three hourseach morning, just hanging outin my
backyard and feeding squirrels orbirds or chipmunks. And you know,
(03:03):
different animals have, you know,they've all got their own different
personalities, and some are moreengaging than others. And the
chipmunks tended to be the, youknow, very skittish. But one
started to emerge as, you know,recognizing that when I would put,
you know, open up the door, andthat wasn't meant to shoo them
away, but it meant that food wascoming, right? So he stayed brave,
and then that bravery followed towhat Iwould be in the garage, andI
(03:28):
looked over, and I saw the littlechipmunk staring at me. And, you
know, and so then I threw him anut, in which case he went grab the
nut and went back. And so in this,in this very brief moment, what I
recognized was, right, thischipmunk demonstrated a desired
outcome, which was to receive innourishment, right. Then, you know,
(03:48):
had individualized actions andintent to support that, right??
So recognized me, however it is,right, in the garage, came up,
stood there looking at me, waitinguntil there was some sort of
acknowledgement of each other'sexistence, and then waited to see
how I reacted, and in anticipationof what it wanted, which was me to
(04:09):
toss it food, it recognized metossing it food, then grab it and
went on its way right. And thenrinse and repeat. And so when I
started to think aboutunderstanding a universal
intelligence as being purposeful,as creative, as problem solving, as
(04:31):
being as being able to comprehend,right? You know, I watched animals
exhibit their own scientific kindof method in the feeding, right?
Especially with the squirrels. Isaw they would recognize a door
open, and I'd watch them look upand around, and I'd say they'd say,
recognize a door frame and how itopens. And then I would watch them
(04:51):
retrace their steps to try tounderstand some sort of causation
or relationship between them, theiraction or movement, and the door
opening and food popping out, andhow that would be. And then so then
trying to for them to figure out,you know, can they control the
situation? Do they have the abilityto control when food comes out? Is
it random? Is it not random? Andthen watch them adapt and learn how
(05:12):
to become comfortable with thatsystem was quite fascinating.
And to watch each of them learn ontheir learn at their own different
times and some desire more, youknow, will come closer, more
engagement than others. Andgenerally speaking, they will, you
know, wait until the door closesbefore approaching food, right? And
so again, continuing to demonstrateindividual thought and
(05:35):
comprehension, which, like, I meanI'm going to say this humorously,
but also because it frightens mewhat I see out there. I go to, I go
to a cash register to check out,and it's challenging to get
somebody to look up and acknowledgeme from their own phone, right? So
the demonstration of, you know,desired outcome, intent and
purposefulness of action, etc., youknow, I see a lot more of, I see a
(05:58):
lot more of intelligencedemonstrated that way. You know, in
some cases, I'm looking at mybackyard and through my own
personal experiences. So we'll,we'll address that one, but that's
anyway, that's why we're talkingabout this stuff, right? Is for
those that are that, are those thatare looking to live life more
purposefully? Well, we're trying toprovide all different reasons and
(06:18):
ways to do that.
So anyway, so do understanding thatintelligence differently, then that
allowed me to expand into, 'Okay,now I can kind of step in other
people's shoes, what appears to becruel, I can understand as part of
a learning process,' and I canunderstand, start to see how, look,
(06:39):
as part of this intelligent design,right, by understanding what makes
us the same, it makes it makes itmuch easier to find win-win
solutions to problems, as opposedto finding solutions based on who's
bigger, who's stronger, who hasbigger weapons, you know, that go
boom, etc. And so one of so some ofwhat I saw, of what drew, of what
(07:04):
made us all together, was everysentient being possesses their own
personality, survival instincts,values and beliefs. Values and
beliefs can be, you know, a commonsimilarity is, is the is the
outlook towards young, and the carefor young and an understanding of
(07:26):
perspective of you know, are allyoung expected to make it, not make
it, and nurture for the and hownurturing occurs for those that may
be experiencing physical or otherdifficulties compared to siblings,
right? Look and through, allthrough experiential learning,
we're all trying, w're all focusedon increasing our intelligence,
(07:46):
learning how to become betterproblem solvers, learning how to
be, learning how to understand,learning how to expand
consciousness, our ownconsciousness through expanding our
ability to comprehend. Right,expanding our increasing our
intelligence, right. Wanting tofeel safe, right, I think every --
we all desire to be able to walkoutside and go about a business and
(08:07):
not have to worry and looking overour shoulder and having a fear
based outcome, right? We all wantto be able to just focus on doing
what we want to do and beingcareful and joyfully explore.
And we all desire to live as anindividual, along with contributing
to the survival advancement of ourspecies, right? Whether or not you
know we agree with the species, youknow we is separate from
(08:31):
understanding why that specieswants to exist, why species is
having its experiences to furtherthe knowledge and the evolution of
its species. We can all relate tothat, and being able to relate to
that means we shouldn't be there'sno reason to hold hold it against
anybody, against it, againstanybody, because we're all doing it
right, right? And ultimately, thenif we're all doing it, and if we're
(08:53):
all recognizing that we're allworking it out, meaning working it
out, meaning, you know,understanding how to be us and how
to live in harmony with oursurroundings and our place in the
circle of life and our circle inthe cosmos and in energies learning
how to learn from each other. Well,then we can also all learn how to
live free and be happy, right? Ithink everybody desires to live
(09:14):
free and be happy, right? And if wethink about when we all learn best
is we can really learn from naturehere, which is living a life of
play and curiosity, right? I mean,squirrels are a magnificent example
of being able to live a life ofplay and curiosity.To sit back and
(09:37):
watch them and watch them formtheir hypotheses and then test them
out and to test boundaries has justbeen, has been truly fascinating to
me, and eye opening.
And so when it comes to, you know,what else do we have to learn from
But the other one was much morefascinating and eye opening to me,
(10:13):
each other? You know, I wanted tokind of share two last stories to
(10:33):
wrap up with. You know, one of themwas, I had to start questioning
which happened with a duck. And so,you know, I was really excited when
duck started showing up. And all ofa sudden I noticed one of the ducks
had a bad foot. And, you know, andof course, I got really, you know,
(10:53):
some of my produce, right? And mynuts, because animals, you know are
bothered and sad. I never like tothink to see anything suffering.
And so I thought to myself, gosh,you know, this can be said, I wish
there was something I could do tohelp the duck. I wonder what
happens with, you know, to this. Iwonder if that was like a snapping
turtle, of what it was. And so fromthere, I felt drawn to Google, you
(11:14):
have got tremendous instincts andunderstanding, you know, the health
know, ducks and broken feet, youknow. And it came to find out that
that was very common. And then, youknow, I'll call it, you know, you
want to call it intuition, a sixthsense, you know, consciousness,
expansion of consciousness, talkingto me, whatever it might be, it
then drew me to recognize that, youknow, in Google, it talks about
(11:34):
of foods, right? And so when Iprovide nuts or vegetables and the
ducks. This happens as a result ofnot being in the proper
surroundings, potentially nothaving the right diet, and also as
a result of not landing properly,right. Well, and so well, getting a
bum foot certainly is a greatdeterrent to learn how to land
squirrels that will sniff them awayand not eat them, I have to wonder
(11:55):
properly, without a doubt, right?Also understanding you know
surroundings and making sure thatyou're that being fluid, and
understanding when it'to stay inyour surroundings, when to leave
your surroundings, and recognizingwhat surroundings are conducive to
your best self is, you know, is agreat way for your you know, your
foot not working properly to giveyou that type of feedback. And the
other one is diet, right? And thisis where man plays and comes into
just how much stuff has beensprayed on these things, right?
(12:16):
harmony with this is, look, if thesurroundings are right and the
ducks are laying properly, well, wegot to wonder, like, is there
something that we're doing that'schanging the diet, that is having
an adverse effect, right? And soare the the ducks, and what's
happening with the ducks, you know,a symptom of something else larger,
And, you know, do I need to, youknow, wash them better, or do I
(12:37):
and that's drawing our attention tothat, right? And so being able to
have that connectivity with, youknow, the different energies of the
consciousness, to understand if,when, when we're doing something
that we need to be, that theanimals actions are actually
teaching us.
need -- Do I need to, or is therejust a problem with there's so much
And so that opened up thatexperience with ducks and
(12:57):
recognizing both how all animalshave got their different challenges
that are wired into theirexperiences, to help learn and
shape their survival instincts andexpand their evolution and ability
stuff being spread all over,pesticides and everything
to adapt and evolve. Right? We all,we all have those things. And so in
(13:19):
that respect, I started torecognize nature as no longer being
cruel but being as a tremendousteacher. Right? And let's face it,
you know, adversity, pain,challenges is a phenomenal teacher
everywhere, that it's just, youknow, it's just a sad reality. I
and deterrent. And so anyway,thanks for you know, let me share
with you the different ways thatI've had the pleasure of being
(13:41):
taught by, you know, through natureand animals and has vastly enriched
don't know. I'm still learningabout that one, in my own testing period.
my living experience.
And I also want to share that thisthat we're all meant to be able to
understand and experience thesethings right? Then that's why I
share this. And so hopefullysomething I've said helps somebody
(14:02):
else to better connect to theirsurroundings and enjoy and improve
their quality of life as well. Sohave yourselves a phenomenal,
awesome week.
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