Okay this is different from my other posts, I'm going to try and contribute something instead of asking something. Hopefully this will help those who don't fully understand how normal people will shift their eyes by looking at someone who does it correctly.
You should try find a movie with some close up scenes of the face, I watched The Hunger Games last night (great movie) and their was a scene where the two lead characters were in a cave staring in to each others eyes (cuz they wuved each other) but I noticed how on of the actors eyes constantly kept moving. So if you don't want to be arrested for excessive staring in to people's eyes it's a good place to have a look.
Another test I discovered today to test your own shifting is to look at your eyes in a mirror and try shifting between different details in your eye. I found it interesting enough so I hope this helps
Natural Vision teachers suggest this too; watch people, children that have clear vision; note how their eyes move, lot of little shifts amongst the bigger longer distance, area ones. Easy, relaxed.
Don't let the person know you are watching their eyes or subconsciously they might start to mentally control the eyes function and that can affect its natural movement.
Indeed it is great to observe those with normal sight - they are the mentors of using the eyes correctly all (or almost all) of the time. In fact, when Bates was one day asked what he called his method, he was very embarrassed that he didn't have a name for it, other than to say his methods were "the methods employed by the normal eye." So, the more you can understand how people with normal sight use their eyes, and can copy their methods (no worry about copyright infringement here!), the better off you will be. Copy away!
It is almost impossible to see your own eye shifts in a mirror, since the brain suppresses the image between the onset to the finish of the shift. Otherwise, it would just appear as a blur, since the eye shift is so lightning quick. But there's benefit to looking at yourself at times, to see if you are tensing any muscles around your eyes, staring, not blinking frequently, etc.
One of the things that you can observe from those with normal sight is that their larger shifts, or saccades, are often accompanied by blinks. It's an efficient, brief rest and relubrication moment done unconsciously. It also protects the eye from potential danger. Studies have shown that the probability of a blink increases with the size of the gaze shift. There are very close neural connections between the eyelid muscles and the extraoculars, so they can work in a very coordinated manner. Myopes often suppress their blinking, interfering the the natural simultaneous action of the two. It doesn't happen so much when you are fixating on a small area, making tiny shifts.
