CPS Members

Bart Van Bemmel
Historian & Lead Investigator

History teacher by day, Ghost hunter by night.  Call him 007.2 on the EMF meter. 

As a teacher, Bart has accomplished many things from ATPE Middle School Teacher of the Year, V.I.P., created creative curriculums for the Gifted and Talented Exploration Academy, History Department Chair, and being nominated for Disney Teacher of the Year (hello Oprah???) just to name a few.

But it’s when nighttime rolls around that his alter ego as Bart the paranormal investigator emerges as he seeks out answers as to why things go bump in the night.  Bart has been studying all things paranormal since he was young – offering insights to those who had questions.  But it’s now that he’s finally doing something about it…by launching his own paranormal outfit and web documentary series.  But none of his closest friends were ever believers - which is why he trained them to use his gear to see for themselves. 

You can catch Bart trying to convince his skeptic friends that something else really does exist from beyond the grave in their C.P.S. adventures.

Jimmy Harper
Resident Skeptic & Investigator

Jimmy is first and foremost a skeptic.  He believes that most sightings are just normal activity exaggerated by the creative minds of people who desperately want to see something from “the other side.”  With that said, growing up with Bart as his best friend, he heard countless tales of ghosts and hauntings, rolling his eyes at each one.  When Bart started the Carrollton Paranormal Society, Jimmy jumped at the chance to tag along on the “investigations,” believing that having a first-hand account of the activities would make it easier to discount them (and it’s also a good excuse to get out of the house).

Despite his skepticism, Jimmy approaches all CPS investigations with an open mind.  Will Bart make a believer out of Jimmy?  Probably not.  But he’ll definitely have a lot of fun trying.

David Macedo
Chief Skeptic / Technical Consultant

Bottom line, I’ve seen better pictures of Bigfoot and UFOs. Ghosts, orbs pffft! Clean your lens!

When Bart invited me to participate with CPS, I was a bit hesitant. Frankly I considered it a big waste of time. But on the other hand, what if he was right? Hey, if we can truly document something paranormal, that would be an amazing experience. I’m determined to use whatever tools and instruments we can get a hold of to document the paranormal, or lack thereof.

This is really going to be an uphill battle for Bart. Going into this, I was moderately open-minded. I’d say I felt that ghosts, hauntings, etc had about a 20% chance of being real. Unfortunately, now that I’ve been doing some investigating with Bart, reviewing other group’s investigations, and doing my own research; well, I’m now 99.9% sure it’s fraudulent. I’m not saying things don’t go bump in the night, its just not ghosts.

My hope is that I can steer the investigations away from the usual, “Oh my god, we left the room and now the chair has moved!” to really documenting that a chair moved on film. I don’t understand the knee jerk reaction to claim ghost on any little thing. If anything, it would make just a much sense to say God felt like moving the chair. Of course, I don’t believe a chair can move on its own…

Hopefully, if I have the time, I would like to write a “Rants and Raves” type section. A blog of sorts, to address my particular issues with the paranormal.

carrolltonparanormalsociety.com
Email: carrolltonparanormalsociety@gmail.com