It is the mind-bending drug which sparked a wave of psychedelic creativity in the 1960s. But for the first time scientists have shown that LSD really does wake up the mind, sparking connections in areas of the brain which do not usually communicate.In a controversial study led by Imperial College, the brains of 20 volunteers were scanned while they were high on acid.The astonishing images show that virtually every part of the brain is active during a trip, allowing users to experience a dreamlike state of vision normally only found while asleep.The drug appears to break down barriers which usually separate areas of the brain from each other, allowing vision, movement and hearing to blur together, stimulating ideas that probably could not happen in a normal state.The researchers say it may be the reason why many LSD users report religious or spiritual feelings of "connectedness".Robin Carhart-Harris, from Imperial College London, who led the research, said: "We observed brain changes under LSD that suggested our volunteers were 'seeing with their eyes shut' - albeit they were seeing things from their imagination rather than from the outside world."We saw that many more areas of the brain than normal were contributing to visual processing under LSD - even though the volunteers' eyes were closed."Furthermore, the size of this effect correlated with volunteers' ratings of complex, dreamlike visions."LSD was first made by Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in 1938 but its psychedelic properties were not discovered until five years later when Hoffman accidentally ingested the drug.The researchers said the LSD led to a state of "altered consciousness" which allowed the brain to work in a unified state.They said it appeared that the drug allowed people to return to an almost childlike state, free from conventions and anxieties which come with age.The investigation could pave the way for compounds such as LSD one day being used to treat psychiatric disorders, say the scientists. ..