If silence is the prerequisite to the three-step process of independent thought, one might think it would be prized for this reason alone, but it is not. The reason for this is simple: thinking independently and creatively is perilous. Once you start to cast aside old ways of thought and leave yourself fully open to new perceptions and new ideas, you shun also and by definition the habits and beliefs on which you have so far built your life. And there is no guarantee that what you come up with now will reconfirm the validity of previous assumptions.

George Michelsen Foy, Zero Decibels, loc. 462