Never been to Briar Hill specifically but the east wing thing doesnt surprise me at all. Sanatoriums almost always concentrate the worst residual energy in the areas where patients had the least freedom of movement - isolation wards, restraint rooms, that sort of thing. The east wing in a lot of these old American institutions tended to be where the more "difficult" cases were housed.
What exactly felt off to you? I ask because theres a difference between the heavy oppressive feeling you get from residual trauma imprints and something that actually responds to your presence. Did anything seem to react to you being there, or was it more like walking into a wall of dread that didnt change regardless of what you did?
I've investigated a former psychiatric hospital outside Derry back in the 90s and the distinction between those two types of experience matters enormously when you're trying to work out what you're actually dealing with. Would like to hear more detail before drawing any conclusions.
