Just read your last post Sal, after I'd written mine. If your preferred learning style is auditory it would explain why you find it easier to sing with your eyes open, and in fact you display what I've just described above perfectly. When you sing your head is slightly to one side and you tend to scan the audience until you're happy that the words for a phrase are coming out right. You then engage an individual, again with head on one side (coquettishly, some would say, but not me 'cos I know what's happening!!) but eyes not really focused, until the next 'chunk' of the song, when you scan again. Honest, you do!