Your UFO story parallels experiences I have heard from people dabbling with the occult. Witchcraft, Ouiji boards, trying to communicate with the dead, etc. Something freaky happens and they don’t want any part of it. Did it really happen or was it in their mind.
Interesting ex: My uncle and some friends were messing around with some black magic kit back in the sixties. One of the kids fingers started to grow. They all swear they saw this happen one night. As far as I know they never fooled with it again.
My mother always liked dabbling in that kind of stuff. I haven’t had any desire to lay my hands on the planchette since I became a real Christian. And I worry for her soul, but, I was told, at church, during her funeral, in a voice only I could here, “we’ve got her”, and I felt comforted.