One way of getting the 'feel' for the tangerine effect is to actually touch the back top of your head when you place the imaginary tangerine. Your hair moving gives you a good focal point. At some point you may actually feel a strong sensation in your head there.

Yes you can probably do the preview without the tangerine. The tangerine is intended to get you into focus on the whole photoreading process, practice makes perfect.
The photoreading step consist of Accelerative learning state, photofocus (soft gaze) and tangerine technique.
I haven't had any bad side effects photoreading 10 books or so at a time take a break and photoread 10 more. Usually they are about the same general topic it seems the mind has the knack of picking the best bits of information from each 
Alex