The Manuel of Lost Ideas 

a collection of documents and related images that arrived anonymously at the Institute of Cultural enquiry in 1955. 

a historical manuscript of largely unknown material, loose scraps of paper and drawings alongside typewritten commentary by various contributors. 

the case with the word " Lake" painted on the front 

Aturo Ott is one of the persons discussing and commenting on the material in the case his type written notes go alongside the various material in the case he was of Anglo- German origin. 

Portrait possibly of Ott within the manuel

"Ott's comments paint a picture of a rather solitary autodidact, with at least a rudimnetary knowledge of such diverse subjects such as painting and photographic technique, the Kabbala, the I Ching, and Greek mythology." 

Ott commentary: Perhaps the single most beautiful leaf in the Manual, but highly deceptive. What at first appears to be a photograph of a galaxy or star cluster reveals on closer examination the tripartite structure of a puffball or dandelion gone to seed. Yet it is not, in fact, a photograph, nor does it depict an organic life form. According to a note pinned to this leaf, it is a mezzotint etching of an image that came to contributor A in a "yogic trance". A describes it as "the world tree unfolding in reverse . . . crown first and roots last, leaves going up like sparks and roots shooting down like rockets. The [3] roots, representing Creator Preserver and Destroyer, give stability to the world and keep it from crumpling back into itself once it reaches its full extension. I could see that it was billions of miles across, and yet it was contained in my inner vision. I held all of it--o joy!--inside myself."

Manual of Lost Ideas, ICI Za7 

extract from http://www.othervoices.org/3.1/mli/index.php#