  It has been shown by Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen that in quantum mechanics
either one of two different wave functions predicting specific values for
quantities represented by non-commuting Hermitian operators can characterize
the same physical existent, without a physical interaction responsible for
which wave function occurs. This result means that one can make predictions
regarding mutually exclusive features of a physical existent. It is important
to ask whether people have the capacity to make observations of mutually
exclusive phenomena. Our everyday experience informs us that a human observer
is capable of observing only one set of physical circumstances at a time.
Evidence from psychology, though, indicates that people may have the capacity
to make observations of mutually exclusive physical phenomena, even though this
capacity is not generally recognized. Working independently, Sigmund Freud and
William James provided some of this evidence. How the nature of the quantum
mechanical wave function is associated with the problem posed by Einstein,
Podolsky, and Rosen is addressed at the end of the paper.
