A chemist in Switzerland synthesized a drug that alters consciousness in 1943. His discovery changed the study of medicine, psychiatry and biology—and became a central component of the counterculture movement The League for Spiritual Discovery, an LSD-based meditation center in New York City, in 1967 Ben Martin / Getty Images Bicycle Day, celebrated annually on April 19, commemorates the world’s first recorded LSD trip in 1943. That’s when Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann ingested lysergic acid diethylamide before bicycling home from his lab in Basel, Switzerland. Today, people commemorate the fateful date by replicating the trip—that is, bike ride—in Basel, and around the world. Hofmann made the discovery while working for the pharmaceutical company Sandoz Laboratories. He was researching lysergic acid, which is derived from the fungus ergot , while attempting to synthesize a compound that could treat respiratory and circulatory conditions.…