This article explains in spiritual terms Einstein's principle that you can't solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it.
Prayer is the medium of miracles A Course In Miracles

In the terminology of A Course In Miracles, prayer is the medium of miracles. It is the avenue that releases us from the effects of our fear-based thinking and aligns our minds with the love of God. In Course terminology through prayer love is received, and through miracles love is expressed.

One of our main tasks in life is to become free of the limitations set upon us by the fear-based thinking of our ego. But try as we may, our efforts regularly fall short. This is because more often than not, we attempt to use the thinking of our ego to solve the very problems it creates. We use guilt, judgment and deficiency thinking to try to get what we want. But as Einstein said, we can’t solve a problem with the same level of thinking that created it.

The best ammunition we have against our ego is to respond honestly to its attempts to control us through fear. We must admit our helplessness and use it as the very reason for abandoning the ego and asking for help from a different source. Typically, however, we have to hit rock bottom in our lives before we ever get to this point. It isn’t until we fall to pieces, that we fall to our knees. But the moment we do our lives begin to turn around. . Until then it’s as though we’ve been waiting on God. The truth is, He’s been waiting on us. It isn’t that He’s masochistic. It’s just that love can never force itself. It must be invited in. When we finally do invite God’s help it’s because life has shown us that of ourselves we can do nothing. Our understanding of our problem is too myopic and our interest too self-serving. God, on the other hand, understands every facet of our problem and can resolve it for the good of all concerned. Nevertheless, even though we know we need help we ask for all the wrong things. We are so identified with our ego’s thinking that the best we can do is hand God a shopping list of the things we want or don’t want. When we pray like this we are implying that we already know the solution to our problem. The truth is the only thing we know is how to create problems, not solve them. When we treat God like a giant vending machine in the sky ready to dispense our predetermined solution we have no idea what we’re really asking for. There’s a story I once heard called The Monkey’s Paw, that illustrates this point well.

The Monkey’s Paw

One day a traveler knocked on the door of an elderly couple and asked them for help. In return for their kindness he gave them a gift of a monkey’s paw telling them it could bestow on them three wishes. For their first wish they asked for a large sum of money. It was not long after they had made their wish that they heard another knock on their door. On opening the door they found a representative from an insurance company who told them that their son had been killed at his place of work. There had been a dreadful accident and he had got caught in a machine. He then handed the couple a check, which was the firm’s compensation for their son’s death. When they opened it they found it was for the exact sum they had prayed for. Overcome by the horror of what had happened, the couple made a second wish and asked for their son to be returned to them. Soon there was another knock on the door. What they saw when they opened the door made them recoil in terror. Their son had returned but his body was horribly mangled by the accident. The parents slammed the door closed and, taking the monkey’s paw for the last time, wished their son to be dead

We must remember the adage: be careful what you ask for you may get it. In the words of the Course true prayer avoids the pitfall of asking to entreat. True prayer asks to receive what has already been given; to accept what is already ours. True prayer asks for God’s help in removing all of the barriers that prevent us from experiencing God’s presence within, no matter what our circumstances are. True prayer is less concerned with what happens on the outside than it is with what happens on the inside. As A Course In Miracles tells us do not pray to change the world. Pray to change your mind about the world.

We are never going to be completely happy with the way things are in our world. But it is possible to find peace in it. In that regard, if we are not happy with our present job, our prayer should not be to find a new one, but to find a way to be happy and extend love in the one we’re already in. This is the best insurance that we will find a new job. If we are not happy with our financial state, we should not pray for money but pray to recognize and appreciate the abundance that is already present in our lives and share it. The best way to attract money is to switch from a mindset of wanting and trying to get, to appreciating and wanting to give. If our health is poor, healing doesn’t come from praying to have our illness removed. It comes from asking for help to find a way to be at peace in spite of our illness. Asking for help to heal our perceptions so that we come from a loving and forgiving perspective in all our relationships is the greatest boost to our immune system.

Prayers of this nature turn whatever circumstance we’re in, be it our job, our financial status or the condition of our health, into a classroom for learning our lessons of love and forgiveness. Healing of our relationships, our bodies, and our financial condition results from a healing of our perspective so that we respond to these things with love instead of from fear. True prayer asks for our minds to be healed so that we can be released from the effects of our fear-based thinking.

In the end, prayer doesn’t change what God does. Prayer changes us. It gives us a renewed sense of purpose. Our relationships, our bodies, our careers are all healed when they are used as instruments of peace and love. Prayer is the medium for miracles when it asks, Dear God, make me an instrument of your peace in my career. Show me the right use of my career, (my money, my body). Help me to remember that my real purpose in life in every case is to be an instrument of your peace and love others unconditionally. Teach me to recognize that the world I am unhappy with is but a mirror reflecting back to me the things that need to be healed in me. When I am withholding love, when I am in steeped in judgment, or lost in despair, please heal my perceptions and help me to see things differently so that I may sow love and forgiveness everywhere and in so doing receive the gifts that are already mine. Amen.

About the Author

Loretta Siani, Ph.D. is a clinical hypnotherapist. In her private practice teaches the mind/body model and combines hypnosis, neuro-linguistic psychology, guided visualizations, aromatherapy, dream work and the principles of A Course In Miracles to assist her clients in achieving transformational changes. Dr. Siani's book, The Magic of Excellence, and her book and CD's for eliminating stress, can be purchased at http://www.atlasbooks.com/marktplc/00761.htm or from her website www.lorettasiani.com, click on "products."