The first step in finding . . . contact with God is learning to be alone and quiet. This is the beginning of silence, the process of introversion. There is just one aim to start with, to still the tumult of activity in mind and body and center down in a state of recollection. And this means shutting out the invading noises from both the outside world and the inner psychic one.
Silence can be a mini-experience of death and resurrection. It is a temporary cessation of one's doing and planning and desires.
— Morton Kelsey, The Holy Way by Paula Huston