Indian Pipe

Trying to work with local NW herbs presents some unique challenges. There is very little accessible tradition on their use of herbs which are specific to this region. The 19th century American medical traditions (the Physiomedicalists and Eclectics, mostly) did not work with them, and records of Native uses are extremely scanty and vague: it seems that everything was used either for “rheumatism” or tuberculosis. Similarly, because they are not well known or commonly used in the wider herbal traditions, they do not receive much contemporary research. This is where we have to play Shen Nong, and our ability to accurately perceive an herb and its actions becomes most important. Conceptually, I imagine training my ability to recognize herbal actions by working first with better documented herbs (so that I can compare my own insights with those of medical predecessors) before trying to tackle the under-documented local herbs. In reality my curiosity spreads without regard to such schemes.

Anyone reading this who does not know what Indian Pipe looks like should first have a look at the pictures here and here. Indian Pipe is an epiparasite, meaning that it parasitizes certain fungi which in turn parasitize the roots of photosynthesizing plants. Since it does not participate in photosynthesis, it has no need for chlorophyll, allowing its white color. Other saprophytes and parasites, also freed from the green chlorophyll express a variety of colors; the distinct whiteness of indian pipe indicates something particular about this plant. Being freed from the demands of photosynthesizing it is also able to grow under complete shade cover, such as under patches of salal, in places where other plants cannot grow.

While growing from a common, tangled mass or rootlets, each aerial growth consists of one thick, juicy stalk, with a very tough fibrous cord in the middle. There are a number of small, scale-like, vestigal leaves. As it grows, the plant is bent at the top, so that the white flower faces downward. It is pollinated in this position. Then, as the plant ages, the top of the stem straightens out, the leaves and flower petals dry to a black color, leaving a seed pod which looks strikingly like a miniature opium seed pod.

The morphological indications of this plant is quite clear: We might say that this plant is not oriented toward the realm of light, but more accurately those processes pertaining to the upward and outward realm of light are, in this plant, shifted down under the ground. Thus the flower - which in other plants opens toward the sun and provides a plant interpretation of the sun - in this case faces downward, toward the earth where it receives its “light.”
The medical uses of the plant follow quite directly from this observation. It is used as a hypnotic, sedative, and analgesic. I.e., it affects our consciousness, which is our own inner light. What I hope to discover and elucidate in some greater detail are the specific alterations of consciousness this plant effects. Sedatives and analgesics are easily dismissed as symptomatic medicines, appropriate in their place, but holding no great curative potentials. However, if properly understood, they may have something to curative to offer in the right situation.

The aerial parts and the roots of Indian Pipe are both medicinal, although they are reported to have slightly different effects. So far I have only experimented with the aerial parts. My description below pertains to that part; I will be experimenting with the roots in the future. The taste of Indian Pipe tincture is distinctly bland, so bland that I had trouble keeping a mental lock on it. When I did focus on this flavor, I felt as if a heavy blanket were being thrown over me. Everything felt muted. As time progressed, I began to detect blank patches in my sensoria - as though a few frames were missing from the movie, or more accurately as if one corner of one frame was missing, then another corner was missing from the next. My wife and I each discovered that we were increasingly aware of areas of areas of muscular tension in our bodies, and especially in our faces. Those areas began to feel mildly painful. We then fell asleep and experienced extremely vivid dreams. We were notably lethargic into the middle of the next day.

The high level of dream activity corresponds with the awareness of muscular tension: they represent buried features of consciousness returning to awareness. This corresponds also with the plant form: in turning the light of consciousness down under the earth, we loose consciousness of the outward world, but gain consciousness of those factors properly belonging to consciousness which have been deposited into material form.

This is where I suspect the plant could be therapeutic: in treating conditions resulting from psychological tension, and more specifically, tension which the patient has difficulty even becoming aware of. This is not an issue addressed directly, at least in those terms, within CCM. Nevertheless, we can explain this as a reorientation in the consciousness aspect of the water-fire axis. Specifically, in cases where the Water and perhaps Wood have suffered drying (i.e. Metal) displacements in order to allow Fire to continue its activity, Indian Pipe will promote the transition between Fire and Metal, so that the other phases can be restored.

While this herb makes falling asleep feel really good, and makes being asleep really fun, it also leaves me feeling lethargic well into the next day - at least in the doses I have been using it (4-10 drops of my rather strong tincture). Thus this is an herb which seems to call out for usage in formula so that these effects can be moderated.  It also seems very promising for homeopathic use, for those who are interested in that style of medicine.