Most people searching for this want to know how to move their eyes in different directions at the same time, like pointing one eye left and the other right. The short answer: your brain is specifically wired to prevent this. Both eyes receive the same movement commands simultaneously, which makes true independent eye movement extremely difficult for most people. But there are a few tricks you can learn, and if you’re looking to change how your eyes appear cosmetically, there are reliable techniques for that too.
Why Your Eyes Move Together
Your eyes are each controlled by six small muscles that work in three pairs: one pair moves the eye left and right, another moves it up and down, and the third handles diagonal and rotational movement. Despite having separate muscles for each eye, your brain treats both eyes as a single unit. A 19th-century physiologist named Ewald Hering described this as being like steering a pair of horses with a single set of reins. When you decide to look left, both eyes receive identical signals to turn left. This principle, known as Hering’s Law, is why your eyes stay aligned without any conscious effort on your part.
This coordination exists for a critical reason. When both eyes point at the same object, your brain merges the two slightly different images into one picture with depth perception. If each eye pointed in a random direction, you’d see double and lose your ability to judge distances. Your nervous system treats binocular alignment as a priority, making it actively resist any attempt to send different commands to each eye.
Eye Tricks You Can Actually Learn
While fully independent eye movement isn’t in the cards for most people, there are a few controlled misalignment tricks that work with your visual system rather than against it.
Crossing Your Eyes
This is the easiest trick because it uses a built-in eye movement called convergence. Your eyes naturally turn inward whenever you focus on something close to your face. To practice, hold a finger or pencil at arm’s length, focus on it, then slowly bring it toward your nose. Your eyes will cross to keep it in focus. With practice, you can learn to cross your eyes on command without needing the target object. Some people can cross their eyes dramatically enough to create a noticeable “wall-eyed” party trick.
The “Magic Eye” Divergence Trick
The opposite of crossing, divergence means pointing your eyes slightly outward, past the object you’re looking at. This is the technique used to see hidden 3D images in Magic Eye posters. It feels like relaxing your focus and staring “through” an object as if looking at something far behind it. Most people find divergence much harder than convergence because your eyes rarely need to diverge beyond parallel in normal life. With practice, though, some people can create the appearance of slightly wall-eyed or unfocused gaze on demand.
The Limits of These Tricks
Neither of these techniques makes one eye go left while the other goes right. Both eyes still move symmetrically, just either inward or outward together. True independent eye movement, where one eye looks up while the other looks sideways, requires either a rare natural ability or a medical condition called strabismus. A small number of people can voluntarily produce what looks like independent movement, but even in those cases, the brain is likely exploiting a subtle misalignment in the system rather than truly controlling each eye separately.
When Eyes Point Different Directions Involuntarily
Strabismus is the medical term for eyes that don’t align properly, affecting roughly 3 to 4 percent of people. The misalignment can go in any direction. Eyes that turn inward are the most common type in young children, while eyes that drift outward are slightly more common overall, appearing in about 2.1% of the general population. Some forms are constant, while others come and go depending on fatigue, illness, or how hard someone is concentrating.
If your eyes have recently started pointing in different directions without you trying, that’s worth getting evaluated. Sudden misalignment in adults can signal nerve problems, muscle issues, or other conditions that benefit from early treatment. This is different from someone who has always been able to voluntarily produce a funny-looking eye position as a party trick.
Don’t Force It for Too Long
Deliberately holding your eyes in an unnatural position, like sustained crossing or forced divergence, can cause eye strain. Symptoms include headaches, blurred vision, burning or watery eyes, and neck or shoulder pain. People who already have uncorrected vision problems or subtle muscle imbalances are especially prone to these effects. Practicing an eye trick briefly for fun is unlikely to cause lasting damage, but holding forced positions for extended periods stresses the muscles and can leave you with a lingering headache.
Changing How Your Eyes Look With Makeup
If your search is really about making your eyes appear different in shape, size, or spacing, eyeliner placement is the most effective tool. The core principle is simple: liner draws attention to wherever you place it, and the eye appears to extend in that direction.
- To make eyes look bigger: Use a thin cat-eye flick angled upward toward your temples, and leave your lower lash line bare. Lighter or metallic shades like gold reflect light and add brightness, which also creates the illusion of larger eyes.
- To make eyes look closer together: Concentrate color at the inner corners of both your upper and lower lash lines, and minimize product at the outer corners.
- To make eyes look wider apart: Build liner thickness toward the outer third of your lash line and extend the wing outward.
- To balance asymmetric eyes: Apply slightly thicker liner to the outer corner of the smaller eye, which makes it appear wider and more symmetrical with the other.
- To elongate round eyes: Use an extended wing. Draw a small flick from the outer edge of your upper lash line, then gently swipe the edge with your fingertip toward your brow to blur the line outward.
Decorative Contact Lenses
Colored or patterned contact lenses can dramatically change eye appearance, from subtle iris color shifts to theatrical effects like cat eyes or white-outs. In the United States, all contact lenses, including purely decorative ones with no vision correction, are regulated as medical devices by the FDA. They legally require a prescription, even if your vision is perfect. This matters because improperly fitted lenses can scratch your cornea, block oxygen to the eye, or cause infections. Buying costume lenses from a novelty shop, beauty supply store, or online retailer that doesn’t require a prescription means you’re getting an unregulated product that may not meet safety standards.
If you want decorative lenses, get a contact lens fitting from an eye care provider first. The exam takes about 15 minutes and ensures the lens curvature matches your eye, which prevents most complications.