Anti-Hero's Journey: The Zero With a Thousand Faces

5 Star Review

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Editorial Book Review:

By LD Clarke

Ben “Doc” Askins’s Anti‑Hero’s Journey: The Zero With a Thousand Faces is a startling and unflinching exploration of identity—and its dissolution—pushed through the crucible of combat, trauma, and psychedelic insight. With fearless candor, Askins reframes the mythic hero’s journey into a raw confrontation with nothingness, offering readers not a story of conquest, but an initiation into the power of zero.

Askins's prose is both bold and introspective, seamlessly transitioning from self-deprecating memoir to pointed aphorisms. Digressive, bracing, and immediately alive, his narrative unfolds like a late-night dialogue. The authentic voice that anchors the chapters "Fear," "Trauma," and "Meditation" is characterized by a directness that avoids literary artifice. He employs a punk-rock tone of humor and warmth, offsetting stark philosophical truths with wit that keeps the text alive even as it deconstructs the self. The result is a slim volume that strikes with the intensity of a capsule sermon and the unpredictability of a psychedelic trip.

At the heart of the book lies the “Zeromyth”: an anti‑quest that rejects the grandiose arc of heroism and turns inward to confront the void. Askins challenges readers to dismantle identity, ego, and all pretense of self‑importance. “There is no call, no separation, no initiation, no return,” he proclaims, redefining growth not as triumph but as radical un-becoming. This zero journey is not nihilism—it is liberation. Once you realize you’re nothing, then you can do anything.

Intellectually, the effect is jolting. Askins’s Zeromyth makes room for paradox—he is nothing and everything at once. Emotionally, the book moves from disarming humor to existential vertigo, challenging readers to hold space for uncertainty. For those battling trauma, egoic limitations, or worn‑out heroic narratives, this text offers excavation and integration, particularly through his reflections on psychedelic‑assisted therapy.

In Anti‑Hero’s Journey, Askins stakes out a rare middle path: a book that is as much a psychedelic medicine as it is philosophical provocation. Its refusal to offer easy answers, and its invitation to sit with emptiness, make it a compelling, unorthodox guide for those seeking deeper transformation.

About the Author

Ben Doc Askins

Doc is no one. He is Banksy’s erudite elder brother, a Deadpool wannabe, and the Shadow of the world’s most interesting man. When artificial intelligence has a fever dream, it dreams of being Doc. He is a son, brother, husband, father, veteran, psycho, therapist, and friend. He is the grinning embodiment of the Duchenne marker, all of his lies are true, and he writes his books with tears in his eyes for you and only you.

Ben Askins (PA-C, MDiv) has an eclectic background with degrees in Outdoor Education, Intercultural Studies, Physician Assistant Studies, and Divinity. He has nearly two decades of experience practicing and teaching wilderness, tactical, and expeditionary medicine in the military. In civilian life, he is a Psychiatric Physician Assistant with an evidence-focused and integrative approach to mental health that includes extensive experience providing ketamine-assisted psychotherapy, medicine management, and spiritual direction. He is certified with the Multidisciplinary Association on Psychedelic Studies (MAPS) in MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Ben is a member of the Wilderness Medical Society, the William Blake Society, a National Outdoor Leadership school alum, a veteran of the Global War on Terrorism, and has completed postgraduate training in Neuropsychiatry and Genomics.​