Obviously, obtaining magic was extremely cumbersome. It was not as simple as in the novels, where they only needed to close their eyes and sit cross-legged, absorbing the energy from the heavens and earth into the body, and releasing it when needed.
Even if Richard followed the instructions in The Writings of Monroe, as well as his own speculations, there were a lot of uncertainties around magic.
For example, what was that "out-of-body state" during the first life reconstruction? What was the "highly activated state" of the second life reconstruction? And what was the "high-energy state" of the third life reconstruction?
In this regard, Richard could only make guesses, explore and conduct tests.
According to some explanations in the book, the out-of-body state of the first life reconstruction was a mysterious state that allowed the spirit to temporarily leave the body and use the spirit to sense the outside world. It felt somewhat like a dream, however the person still had a clear sense of himself.
Richard's understanding of this was that this out-of-body state was similar to meditation, which was called "mantra" in Sanskrit. In Sanskrit, the word "mantra" could be divided into two parts, namely "man" and "tra"—"man" meant "mind," and "tra" meant "to lead away." Therefore, mantra meant to draw the human mind away from all kinds of worldly thoughts, worries, desires, spiritual burdens, etc.
However, this out-of-body state was not exactly the same as mantra meditation, it was deeper. On the basis of maintaining a relaxed consciousness, it was more out of the body and deeper into the spirit, similar to the ultimate state of meditation—Zen meditation.
In other words, it was like suffering sleep paralysis during a nightmare. This happened when, after suddenly waking up, the brain regained consciousness, but the brain's motor functions were still in a deep sleep state, causing a phenomenon in which the mind could not control the body. The person could think and recollect, but they could not move their limbs, filling them with panic.
Or this could also be that lucid dream that many people pursued. In these cases, the consciousness was half asleep and half awake, the person clearly knowing that he is dreaming and can control what happens in any kind of dreams. They could create and destroy like a god, and realize the fantasies that would be impossible in reality.
Simply put, this out-of-body state was very deep mantra meditation, and it was not easily achievable. Even a true yoga master could not guarantee full immersion in meditation at any time. The sleep paralysis and lucid dreams were even more difficult to attain. Even if sleep was deliberately adjusted, the success rate was less than one-tenth.
This was completely unacceptable to Richard. Looking at it from a scientific view, a 100% success rate was the only way to prove that something was feasible.
To ensure that there was a 100% success rate of achieving the extremely complex out-of-body state, Richard could only think of relying on drugs.
It was true that the use of drugs could have side effects on the body, but drugs might be the most convenient and fastest method. Under normal circumstances, it was impossible to stay conscious while the body fell asleep. However, it could be done with special drugs, like alkaloids with anesthetic effects.
Many plants contained alkaloid components, such as Solanaceae, Leguminosae, Ranunculaceae, Papaveraceae, and other dicotyledonous plants. These plant's raw materials could be modified with his equipment, and after going through a series of chemical reactions to remove impurities, alkaloids derived from high purity anesthetic could be obtained.
With that in mind, Richard started to work.
The complex instruments didn't stop working. Their purpose was to distill, condense, filter, precipitate, dissolve, crystallize.
Puff, puff. A large puff of white steam rose. Bang, bang. The lids of the beakers kept rattling. Drip, drip. Yellow liquid dripped from the ox horn tube. Puff, puff. Bubbles formed in the beaker.
…
After working on this for most of the day, the entire experiment had reached the final stage. As the temperature of the liquid in the beaker gradually cooled, pieces of crystals were formed. They had a turbid yellow color, and the interior seemed to be filled with dust.
Richard took a look and shook his head, knowing that this first attempt had failed. The reason was simple—there were impurities.
There was nothing wrong with the way he had carried the experiment, he had even removed various impurities for it. However, there were more than 20 steps in the entire experiment. Due to the equipment limitations of this world, each procedure caused at least one small error.
It was still acceptable to make one or two errors, however, 10 and even 20 errors were fatal. The accumulation of quantitative changes caused qualitative changes, and this had completely contaminated the final crystals, which should be pure. Thus they could not be used.
It was a failure.
Richard shook his head again, but did not show any annoyance. Since he had been in this world for 15 years, he understood how it worked. No matter how angry he was, it was useless; no matter how strictly he asked the craftsmen, there would always be errors in the instruments they made for him.
To solve this problem, he needed to get rid of the impurities and to improve its purity.
If he wanted to get rid of impurities and improve the purity, he would need a suitable solvent, or extractant, preferably an organic extractant.
However, obtaining organic extractants was easier said than done.
Many organic extractants required high temperatures and high pressure conditions. Should he then think of ways to build reactors and distillation towers?
The only easy organic extractant might be ether.
Well, wait a minute. Ether.
Richard suddenly narrowed his eyes and thought of something.
Ether!
Yes, ether!
Ether could be used as a medicine extractant solvent, but if he really got ether, there was no need for extraction. Ether itself was an anesthetic better than alkaloids.
Yes, ether was an anesthetic!
Ether was a liquid anesthetic, and it was the kind that ordinary people knew best. Even if a person had never seen it in real life, it often appeared in movies—in the scene where bad guys used a soaked handkerchief to cover the victim's mouth and nose. The victim would inhale this nervously, intaking the volatile liquid into the body, and fall unconscious.
In such scenes, the product on the handkerchief was ether, a colorless and transparent liquid. It was very volatile and had a very fast anesthetic effect.
However, the technical process to obtain ether was somewhat difficult since aluminum oxide was needed as a catalyst. Aluminum oxide or metallic aluminum was ten times more scarce than gold and gems in this current medieval world.
But it was much simpler to produce in a laboratory.
He only needed two raw materials to produce ether in a laboratory, namely sulfuric acid and ethanol. Sulfuric acid was easy to obtain, and as for ethanol… What was ethanol? Ethanol was the scientific name for alcohol, so it was easily found in abundance. Using alcohol to produce ether was the kind of basic information found in high school chemistry textbooks. He seemed to have overcomplicated the matter.
Richard was talking to himself as he slowly stood up and his eyes fell on the equipment on the table. He took a closer step and quickly disassembled the apparatuses. He then used the large test tube, a catheter, a wooden cork, a flask, an iron stand, an iron ring, a separatory funnel, etc. to assemble another set.
After this was completed, Richard did a simple check to ensure it was air tight and began to fill it with drugs. He poured absolute ethanol into the flask, followed by concentrated sulfuric acid, and plugged it with a wooden cork. He then heated the solution and waited for it to cool down.