Can a non-orthodox layman arrive to Hesychia? After reading about Hesychasm and the related topics such as Jesus' Prayer, Philokalia and palamism I'm stuck with a question. In Hesychasm, the main objective is to arrive to Hesychia, which is stillness or quietness. 

My question is straightforward: without living as a hermit and without being orthodox, are there any chances to practice Hesychasm successfully?

If the answer is positive, how may this be?
If the answer is negative, why is it impossible?
I suppose the answer depends entirely on how you define success.  To be an authentic Hesychast  monk, you would really need to move to Mt. Athos.  

But there's no reason you couldn't successfully integrate some Hesychast methods into your current life.  In particular, contemplation, meditation and recital of the Jesus Prayer seems entirely within the reach of all believers and captures the core of the tradition as I understand it.  Being an outsider myself, I can't say if it's possible to reach the sort of peace the tradition sets as the end state, however.

As a word of caution: like other sorts of spiritual gifts and experiences, it seems to me we go off course if we begin to pursue them for their own sake.  As Paul warns:


  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.&mdash;1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (ESV)