Ball lightening ( a very rare occurrence [I witnessed such at the age of seven and not since]) is most probably a static charge that has reached a sort of equilibrium and as such is not felt and does not effect the living being with which it is in contact. Its most common occurrence is in open pasture-type land and rolling on the ground or on the backs of cattle. It has been reported on the old wooden ships as running up and down the rigging and the sample I saw was on the guy wires of our television antenna ca 1956 during an electrical storm. You are lucky that when you put your had where you saw the phenomenon that it was still in equilibrium for when something alters that there is often an explosion of sparks and an electrical discharge of varying capacity. That is to say, IF it was ball lightening!