We show that the action of conformal vector fields on functions on the sphere determines the spectrum of the Laplacian (or the conformal Laplacian), without further input of information. The spectra of intertwining operators (both differential and non-local) with principal part a power of the Laplacian follows as a corollary. An application of the method is the sharp form of Gross' entropy inequality on the sphere. The same method gives the spectrum of the Dirac operator on the sphere, as well as of a continuous family of nonlocal intertwinors, and an infinite family of odd-order differential intertwinors.