Of course your friend hallucinates stones: there’s no other way to read, unless you’re going to recite “black c4, white e3, …”. The intersections don’t light up automatically: they must be “manually” switched on. Even a visual thinker must string words together in order to speak.
With practice you can learn to read. Start with visualizing one move ahead. That’s only one extra stone on the board—anyone can learn to imagine that. Then work on imagining two stones...
“Feeling” the right move without reading is a separate skill. Both skills are fundamental to the game.
Just put $2K to the general fund.