I just wanted to clarify a few things in your 2/09 post Gino: "image of the beast" Letter in which you stated that people are to worship the image of the beast and not the beast (Rev. 13:15).  According to Rev. 13:4, the people also worship the dragon (Satan) and the beast himself.  Rev. 14:9&11 also tells us that the people worship the beast and his image.

You also asked "And how does the 'image' 'cause' the people to be killed (to slay/to put to death)?  Does it kill the people itself? Do other people kill them?  And how are they killed?  Does it shoot out some sort of death ray or DEW?  Are they beheaded?"   According to Rev. 20:4, the martyrs are beheaded.

You also brought up a very interesting point about the possibility of an evil spirit being inside the image of the beast which makes sense because the word "life" in our King James Bible in Rev. 13:15 can mean "spirit" as shown in the Greek interlinear Bible with English translation at Scripture4All Interlinear: Revelation 13 and at Revelation 13 Greek interlinear, parsed and per word translation, free online  

The Greek word "pneuma" is Strong's G4151 which means wind, breath, spirit.  So there is the possibility that it may be an evil spirit inside of a statue or a humanoid looking robot that looks exactly like the beast with an evil spirit speaking out of it's mouth that sounds exactly like the beast's voice.