Imagination, strange as it may seem, is a form of travel. The mind takes us to places that we don’t know about, and the mental constructs provide us with a richness not experienced in the real world. Prisoners often report imagining the free life and the things they would do if outside in the world.

The symbolic mobility of imagination offsets the actual geographical mobility when the latter is not possible. The reverse is also true, for people who are always travelling and imagine being at a stable place.