Jeff Rosenbaum was a visionary, a community organizer, a musician, and a radical catalyst for alternative thought. A pantheistic social libertarian with a deeply rooted psychedelic spiritual orientation, Jeff operated under a simple but profound belief:
Throughout his life, he dedicated his tireless intellect and endless creativity to building physical spaces where the weird, the wise, and the wonderful could meet as equals.
The Vision of ACE and the Chameleon Club
In the spring of 1977, Jeff convened the historic meeting that birthed the Chameleon Club, driven by a mutual interest in the mind arts and sciences. Drawing inspiration heavily from works like Robert Anton Wilson's Cosmic Trigger, the group set out to make their corner of the world a cooler, freer, and sweeter place.
By 1983, this collective evolved into the Association for Consciousness Exploration (ACE). Under the direction of Jeff and his co-director Joe Rothenberg, ACE became one of America's most vital hubs for open spiritual and philosophical thought. From running a "mind spa" equipped with biofeedback devices and sensory isolation tanks in the 1980s, to hosting cutting-edge classes, ACE operated under a guiding motto: "Dedicated to the Expansion of the Frontiers of Your Consideration."
The Ringmaster of Starwood
Jeff's ultimate love-child and lasting legacy is the Starwood Festival, which he helped found in 1981. What began as a weekend gathering transformed over the decades into a legendary, week-long celebration of alternative spirituality, neopaganism, shamanism, and new science.
As the ringmaster of this yearly fantasy, Jeff regularly amassed the tribes around a roaring bonfire in the woods. He curated a space where world-famous musicians, radical activists, and legendary thinkers could share their brilliance. It was because of Jeff’s role as a lecture agent and organizer that counter-culture giants like Robert Anton Wilson and Dr. Timothy Leary originally came to collaborate, step on stage together, and record the very audio lectures featured across our site today.
A Lasting Enchantment
Jeff was a hard worker who gave everything to his community, playing guitar and percussion in bands like Chameleon, hosting vibrant local drum jams, and managing the monumental logistics of festival life. Behind his hyper-focused work ethic was a sweet, thoughtful, and hilariously funny soul.
Though Jeff passed away in 2014 from rapid-onset brain cancer, the chassis of the bus he built keeps rolling forward. The enchantment he wove continues to live on in every crackle of the bonfire, every beat of the drum, and every archive of cosmic thought preserved here at DragonFeast.