Amanda Feilding

Amanda Claire Marian Charteris, Countess of Wemyss and March (née Feilding; 30 January 1943 – 22 May 2025) was an English drug policy reformer, lobbyist, and research coordinator. In 1998, she founded the Foundation to Further Consciousness, later renamed to the Beckley Foundation, a charitable trust which initiates, directs, and supports neuroscientific and clinical research into the effects of psychoactive substances on the brain and cognition. She also co-authored over 50 papers published in peer-reviewed journals, according to the Foundation. The central aim of her research was to investigate new avenues of treatment for such mental illnesses as depression, anxiety, and addiction, as well as to explore methods of enhancing well-being and creativity.

Feilding was a proponent of utilising the cognitive effects of cannabis since the 1960s. She experimented with trepanning, drilling a hole into her skull in 1970 to expose the dura mater, a technique used in some cultures to treat mental illness, and considered by some to provide a calming effect or a higher state of consciousness. She was also a proponent of the use of LSD to trigger long-term improvements in creativity.

Feilding received the Women's Entrepreneurship Day Organization’s Science Pioneer Award at the United Nations in 2022. The award, also recognised by the US Congress, highlights women entrepreneurs.