Good morning, Hats!
That's a terrific quote. Intriguing, for sure.
You know me, I don't go in for all the past life stuff, but animal behavior and how it relates to humans and spirit is right up my alley.
I like to keep things simple, and humans and animals have far more in common than most people are willing to admit. You won't find many Christians promoting the fact that Genesis describes how God first offered various animals to Adam as mates, which Adam refused.
Was it sense of humor on God's part? Was sense of humor even created yet? Or was the more obvious true, that God regarded Adam as an animal, but Adam turned out to be a separate species of animal and otherwise, there was no real difference?
I've dealt extensively with mildly to severely autistic children and adults. I see it as a bit of a brain glitch, an ability to mirror (sometimes scarily well), but without the inherent/automatic social comprehension that goes with it. The more severe the autism, the less and less a person can comprehend or even care about others' feelings or actions. Some autistic persons realize the effect on others afterward. They're just comprehending the cues too late. Others can't comprehend (or care) about others at all. There's a bit difference in scale.
Among other things, those that can't comprehend or empathize with others also blame them for their feelings and assign their feelings to them. They feel hate and a desire to destroy, but they will say that YOU feel that way toward them. Then they will act out in such a hateful, nasty way that you lose patience and feel angry and then wonder - or even believe - that the feelings they assigned to you might actually be true?
Think animals. If some beast is in pain and aggressively attacks you, it could be for anything. You moved your hand too fast, you stepped over a line, you turned your back, whatever. The beast comes at you and you bristle up, get ready to defend, or you run away. If you get ready to defend, the beast claims "you caused it to attack," or "you acted hateful and aggressive toward it." If you run away, then you did something wrong and had something to hide. In the beast's world, it's always you that is wrong. There's never a thought about its own feelings or actions or why. They automatically change the sequence in which things happen, too. The other person is always to blame, always started it, blah blah.
There's lots of people like that. Whether severe autism or some other malady, they assign their own feelings and actions to others.