Revelation 13:18 read on its own terms against every attempt to make it a person. Neville has heard that Nero was the man, that Hitler was the man, that Napoleon was the man, and he does not dispute that they were monstrous - but the text says this calls for wisdom, this calls for understanding, for the number of the beast is a human number, it is the number of a man. Man was created on the sixth day, so the number is the sixth raised to the nth degree, three sixes, and I am man - you too, though you are female, you are generic man. Therefore the beast that opposes me happens to be myself, and we are opposed only by ourselves. The practical form follows at once: if you believe you are unwanted you must overcome that belief in yourself and not crush the one who reflects it, because this world of mortality only reflects what is taking place within. He allows that you can give numerical values to the letters of Nero or Hitler or Stalin and make them come to 666, and says flatly that this is not scripture - they were not prophesying the existence of any man. At 1313 he gives the same verdict in one line, it is simply man in his present state, and at 1820 he tones the number: 6+6+6 is 18, 1+8 is 9, and nine is the number of man, which is also where 144,000 lands.