X... it lends itself to all kinds of things: X-treme, X-ercise Caution, X-periences, X-ceptional, X-tenuating Circumstances, X-tra-sensory...X-traordinary. And all of these words come into play when the topic centers around one X-cop's new business venture. Rob McConnell is the publisher of Niagara's own 'X' CHRONICLES, a Canadian multimedia corporation specializing in the paranormal (strange occurrences) and parapsychology (the study of such events).

THE 'X' CHRONICLES is relatively new. It is an Internet site (http://www.xzone-radio.com), a radio show, a research organization, a mail order service and a monthly newspaper. The first edition of the newspaper came out in May 1995, but the ground work and precedent were laid down long before. Having seen a UFO when he was a young child, Rob McConnell is a firm believer in possibilities. Rather than discounting accounts of ghosts, UFOs, angels, near-death experiences... whatever... McConnell has established himself as one open mind in the prevalent climate of disbelief. Instead of closing down the ability to believe in such things, when all rational adults told him he was imaging things as a child, he allowed himself to become more receptive to the unusual. Using radio as an analogy, McConnell says that where most people operate within the AM/FM frequencies, "children are like a multi-band frequency radio", able to pick up signals from a broader spectrum of events. Perhaps, he speculates, that is the reason why so many reported "incidents" are attributed to children. And why not? As McConnell points out, children all buy the Santa Claus, Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny deal until the adults cruelly take the magic away from them.

Whether he's onto something or not is besides the point. He has definitely stepped to the side of more comfortable paradigms most accept as normal, and is encouraging a climate of open-mindedness.

THE 'X' CHRONICLES is run by himself. Research is done both in the field locally, and is linked to research done elsewhere. The tools McConnell says, are basic - the kind found in high school science labs. Among these are UV testers, magnetometers, and they have also developed a psychological profile test. They are used to sort out the normal from the not so normal.

But what's normal? According to McConnell interest is widespread, and there is certainly no scarcity of reported incidents. One report says that "UFO sightings [alone] have increased by more than 200 percent during the past year" (THE 'X' CHRONICLES Vol. 2, No 2, Sept 1996). The Internet site receives in the neighborhood of 10,000 visits per month, the radio program can be heard via Internet and 6,500 copies of the newspaper are distributed every month. Is this kind of response an indication of people who are really interested in learning more and knowing more about the paranormal, or is it an indication of the number of people who are looking for laughs? Look at how many people buy the National Enquirer?

McConnell doesn't bat an eyelid when he is confronted with this kind of comparison. THE 'X' CHRONICLES, he maintains, is above all else a professionally run outfit. Though the kinds of hoaxes and sensationalist stories found in some publications are precisely the kinds of things that are researched and reported on by THE 'X' CHRONICLES, they are handled in a different manner. For sure the same kinds of pictures may appear, (misshapen skulls, disappearing sasquatches, and aliens with large eyes and spindly bodies) but these are accompanied by articles that attempt to shed light. One such example is the revelation that the famous (to those who are into such things) 1967 Roger Patterson film of Sasquatch was a hoax - a process that McConnell and fellow researcher Ned Fasullo had an important hand in. Many would say, "So? Big Surprise," but according to THE 'X' CHRONICLES this has been a hotly debated topic for several decades.

The newspaper itself is a somewhat daunting publication. Crammed full of type it doesn't initially cry out to be picked up and read, and to a population long inured to crackpot journalism, the picture may serve to detract from its attractiveness. However, reading is believing. McConnell says he does real research, and he is well aware of the potential for exploitation from scam artists dressed as fortune tellers and people trying to make a buck from sensationalism. The long columns of THE 'X' CHRONICLES bear this out. An article on gypsies and their alleged powers of prophesy is just that - a short discussion on what has been said, or believed about gypsies. Educational, not sensational. A local tale, THE LEGEND OF OLD MCAFFEE (THE 'X' CHRONICLES, Vol. 2, No 1) is retold with a short discussion later of the inconclusive attempts to prove or disprove mysterious sightings in a graveyard connected with the legend. A statement of events, not an offering of proof. An article on angels doesn't offer religious indoctrination, but a brief, and interesting overview of the history of beliefs in angels. McConnell has also done research for other media (such as CBC) and is considered credible and professional. He says, "If we don't know, we say we don't know." Yes, interspersed with educational concepts are accounts of eyewitness UFO sightings, conspiracy theories, ancient-gods-from-the-sky speculation, but that's what THE 'X' CHRONICLES chronicle - unsolved, unknown occurrences, and anyone picking it up expecting otherwise is going to be disappointed.

With distribution to many parts of the globe and feedback and contributions from the same, the scope of information and stories is broad and apparently well regarded in the paranormal community. THE 'X' CHRONICLES website has won several awards, notably one from 20th Century Fox and from ID4, who also extended an invitation to the ceremony to rename the highway that runs past Area 51. A recent upsurge in sci-fi drama hasn't hurt either. People seem to be interested in possibilities in a big way right now. ID4, STARGATE, THE OUTER LIMITS and THE X-FILES are all in the same realm.

McConnell could be seen as jumping on the band wagon, but as he points out his interest is long-standing. In 1993 when Mulled and Scaly were flashlighting their way to fame via the weird, McConnell was running MAGICAL MYSTICAL TOURS out of Port Dalhousie - boat rides through a piece of the Great Lakes Triangle.

The Great Lakes Triangle is, apparently, like the Bermuda Triangle only smaller. It stretches from Kingston to Windsor to Fort Erie and is reportedly the setting for very mysterious occurrences, numerous UFO sightings, and the existence of columns of magnetic matter. According to McConnell, who is researching this area, one third of all air and sea accidents within the USA and Canada, take place in the Great Lakes Triangle. Ghost ships, the Edmund Fitzgerald and disappearing aircraft are all given due coverage in THE 'X' CHRONICLES.

And the coverage is International. The radio show, Sunday night on 1220 am CHSC at 6 p.m. is a live simulcast with KCNR in Salt Lake City, and can be heard worldwide via the Internet. Interest and response seem to have been good as there is talk of them doing two hours instead of one. The newspaper is the only one in North America that focuses primarily in parapsychology and the paranormal.

All this keeps McConnell busy, and in addition he is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the ESP Psychic Expo in Toronto in November, preceded by an event he has organized here in St. Catharines, Sunday, October 27th (if no psychic has tipped you off yet) you will find THE 'X' CHRONICLES UFO/ALIEN SYMPOSIUM taking place at the CAW Hall, 124 Bunting Road, between 09:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. Among the numerous exhibitors and lecturers will be local spiritualist from Niagara Falls, Tashene Wolfe, THE 'X' CHRONICLES radio man Chuck LaFleur and the not so local Victor Muscat (the director of the International Raelian Movement). Marshall Barnes (a congressional investigator) will speak about government conspiracies and cover-ups, psychic Barbara Swift and Rob McConnell, himself. It promises to be interesting and the admission is very reasonable - five bucks per person or three fifty with a donation of canned goods for the local Food Bank.

THE 'X' CHRONICLES mottoes, "by Canadians for the world and beyond," and"keep your eyes to the sky and your heart in the light" are well meant sentiments. If nothing else McConnell comes across as an accepting person, one that routinely receives calls from distressed people with nowhere else to turn with their unusual experiences. Whether everyone buys into the existence of paranormal activity is besides the point. THE 'X' CHRONICLES is there for those who do. And who can say? After steeping yourself in one or two editions, you may find your thoughts a little less earth bound.