Let go ot the blip page, continue to use the soft focus. The imaginary X is to help you to notice the 5 visual areas of the book while photoreading. This helps ensure you've softened your focus. You should be able to visually notice the 4 outer corners of the book while gazing at the middle crease. No need to actually see an X in the minds eye if you are aware of those 5 points while photoreading. Continue to photoread upside down since it seems to help.
The vaguely familar feeling is a nice start towards spontaneous activation. Unless you actually practice with manual activation you'll find that you have to photoread a few months and a number of books per day before you have a few more hits than misses with spontaneous activation.
Grab a book and do the 5 day test (page 76 of the 3rd edition). That will help you get the concept of manual activation. I also gave a step by step method in the post AlexK today. You might want to have a look at that for some ideas. Once you've manually activated a few books you'll probably find it much easier to have some sort of spontaneous activation. Remember spontaneous activation is nothing like actually reading the book nor will the results be the same as manual activation. If you want to have someone test you have them ask you true or false questions about the book. You might find you know more than you realised 
Alex
