Beckley Foundation
UK-based foundation founded by Amanda Feilding that has funded and coordinated psychedelic brain imaging research — including early psilocybin fMRI studies with Robin Carhart-Harris — and drug policy reform advocacy for three decades.
Type: research
Location: Oxfordshire, United Kingdom (International)
Membership: Research organization — not open membership
Venues: Partner research institutions internationally
Activities: Psychedelic research funding, drug policy reform advocacy, scientific conferences
About
The Beckley Foundation was founded by Amanda Feilding, Countess of Wemyss, in 1998. Feilding has been involved in consciousness research since the 1960s — she is one of the few living people who has undergone trepanation (drilling a small hole in the skull) in pursuit of altered consciousness, an act that reflects her decades-long commitment to the subject that predates popular interest.
The Foundation's research arm — the Beckley/Imperial Research Programme — partnered with Robin Carhart-Harris and the Imperial College London team on the first psilocybin fMRI studies that demonstrated default mode network suppression. This research was foundational to understanding the neuroscience of psychedelics.
The Foundation's policy arm has advocated for evidence-based drug policy reform internationally, including UNESCO presentations, UN agency engagement, and support for decriminalization and research frameworks globally.
Why It Matters
The Beckley/Imperial partnership produced the neuroimaging research that gave psychedelic therapy a mechanistic foundation. Without early Beckley funding and coordination, the fMRI work that underpins the REBUS model and the default mode network findings might have been delayed by years.
