Who Is Amanda Feilding

Amanda Feilding (born 1943), Countess of Wemyss, is a British drug policy reformer, researcher, and the founder and director of the Beckley Foundation, which she established in 1998 to investigate consciousness and advocate for evidence-based drug policy reform. For over two decades, the Beckley Foundation has funded and co-directed some of the most important psychedelic research of the modern era, collaborating with institutions including Imperial College London, Johns Hopkins University, University of Maastricht, and King's College London.

Feilding is an unusual figure in the psychedelic renaissance: she combines personal experience with altered states (including a notorious self-trepanation in the 1970s) with decades of patient, strategic work building the scientific evidence base needed to change policy. While figures like Rick Doblin at MAPS focused on the FDA approval pathway, Feilding concentrated on funding the basic neuroscience—the brain imaging studies, the mechanistic research, the micro-dosing investigations—that help explain how psychedelics work, not just that they work. Her collaborations with Robin Carhart-Harris and David Nutt at Imperial College produced landmark neuroimaging studies of the brain on LSD and psilocybin that have reshaped our understanding of consciousness, default mode network activity, and the neural correlates of ego dissolution.

Core Concepts

1. Evidence-based drug policy reform: Feilding's central argument is that drug prohibition is not based on scientific evidence and causes more harm than the substances themselves. She advocates for regulation rather than criminalization, drawing on decades of research showing that substances like psilocybin, LSD, and cannabis have legitimate therapeutic applications that prohibition prevents from being explored. Her approach is pragmatic rather than ideological—she wants policy to follow evidence, not politics.
2. Psychedelic neuroscience and the default mode network: Through Beckley Foundation collaborations, Feilding helped fund the studies that showed psychedelics reduce activity in the brain's default mode network (DMN)—the neural system associated with self-referential thinking, rumination, and the sense of a fixed, separate self. This finding provided a neurobiological framework for understanding why psychedelics can produce ego dissolution, mystical experience, and therapeutic breakthroughs in conditions like depression and addiction.
3. Microdosing research: The Beckley Foundation was among the first to fund rigorous research into microdosing—the practice of taking sub-perceptual doses of psychedelics to enhance creativity, mood, and cognitive flexibility. While the evidence remains mixed (placebo effects are significant), Feilding's support helped transform microdosing from anecdotal Silicon Valley trend to legitimate research question.
4. Cannabis reform and research: Beyond psychedelics, Feilding has been a persistent advocate for cannabis policy reform and has funded research into the therapeutic potential of different cannabinoid formulations. She argues that the distinction between "recreational" and "medical" use is often artificial, and that regulation should focus on harm reduction and quality control rather than prohibition.
5. Cerebral circulation and consciousness: Feilding's earliest and most controversial interest—trepanation, the practice of making a small hole in the skull—was based on her theory that increased cerebral blood flow enhances consciousness. While this specific practice remains far outside mainstream science, her broader interest in the relationship between blood flow, brain function, and states of consciousness has been partially vindicated by neuroimaging research showing that psychedelics do indeed alter cerebral blood flow patterns.

Essential Writings

• Beckley Foundation Research Reports and Policy Papers: The foundation has produced dozens of scientific publications, policy briefs, and reports on psychedelics, cannabis, and drug policy reform. These aren't books but they represent the core of Feilding's intellectual contribution. Best use: visit beckleyfoundation.org for the most current research summaries and policy recommendations.
• Interviews and public lectures: Feilding has given extensive interviews and talks (many available online) that articulate her vision for evidence-based drug policy and the future of psychedelic research. Best use: the most accessible way to understand her thinking and the strategic logic behind decades of Beckley Foundation work.

Image Attribution

“Ann Harrison and Amanda Feilding in Basel in 2006.jpg” (photographer listed on file page), via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Link: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAnn_Harrison_and_Amanda_Feilding_in_Basel_in_2006.jpg?utm_source=chatgpt.com