[2] Around this time, Dillon became aware of a doctor who had been studying the effects of testosterone on female patients, and started taking the hormone for personal use, driven by a desire to become a man.

Whilst at the garage, he began writing what would become his 1946 book Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology, considered to be a pioneering work in the field of transgender medicine.

He also received a gender-affirming double mastectomy whilst in hospital for hypoglycemia and heard of the work of surgeon Sir Harold Gillies, who agreed to perform a phalloplasty on Dillon after the war.

As a medical student, Dillon performed an orchiectomy on Roberta Cowell, the first British trans woman to receive male-to-female sex reassignment surgery.

Inspired by reading the works of George Gurdjieff, Peter Ouspensky and Tuesday Lobsang Rampa, he resigned from the Merchant Navy and moved to India and to devote his life to Buddhism.

Between 1960–1962, he wrote four books on Buddhism, including Imji Getsul: An English Buddhist in a Tibetan Monastery which recounted his three months at Rizong.

[3] Assigned female at birth, he was the second child of Robert Arthur Dillon (1865–1925), a Royal Navy Lieutenant and heir to the baronetcy of Lismullen in Ireland.

[13][14] Dillon also enjoyed sports and masculine-oriented activities[5][12] and wished to present himself in a more masculine way, such as asking for his hair to be cut in the same style as his brother's.

[16] He recalled an incident from his teenage years when a boy held open a gate for him and he realised for the first time that others perceived him as a woman, which jarred with how he felt internally.

[5] Dillon felt physically uncomfortable as a girl, recalling that he had tried to bind his breasts with a belt until a classmate found out and warned that it was dangerous.

[8][18] Dillon initially had ambitions of becoming a Deaconess post-graduation, but convinced the university that he should switch to Greats (also known as Classics) and secured further tutoring in the subject during the holidays.

[21] His advancement of the women's sport gained him press attention; his photo was featured in a Daily Mail article in November 1937 with the caption "How unlike a woman!

His desire to be a man and uncertainty on what profession to pursue restricted his job opportunities,[12] and he ultimately found employment as a petrol pump attendant at a garage called College Motors.

Written from the perspective of a neutral third party, the book argues for greater empathy for patients who wish to change their sex and advocates for a patient-informed basis of treatment.

[5] Gillies made an effort to foster a positive atmosphere at Rooksdown and Dillon enjoyed his time there, twice acting as master of ceremonies for the Christmas parties and in general feeling as if he were finally becoming wholly male.

[5][38] Dillon's book Self (published 1946) brought him to the attention of Roberta Cowell, a racecar driver who wished to transition from male to female.

[5][50] He started donating 10 percent of his income to a grant scheme facilitated by Arthur Millbourne, Canon of Bristol Cathedral, which helped disadvantaged students pay for university.

Dillon also tried to escape his prior conditioning by reading widely, including the works of George Gurdjieff, Peter Ouspensky, Tuesday Lobsang Rampa.

[52] Dillon discovered that Rampa, author of The Third Eye, lived in Dublin and decided to visit him for a fortnight in 1957 to seek mentorship in Buddhism.

[8] Dillon's ship had docked at Baltimore when he received a cable from the Daily Express, asking whether he intended to claim his aristocratic title since his "change-over".

[57] Dillon told the press that he was a male born with a severe form of hypospadias and had undergone a series of operations to "correct" the condition after he began to display masculine features.

[59] The editor of Debrett's told Time magazine that Dillon was unquestionably next in line for the baronetcy, saying: "I have always been of the opinion that a person has all rights and privileges of the sex that is, at a given moment, recognized.

"[60] Dillon found the sudden reveal of his transition distressing, retreated from his colleagues for ten days after the news broke and contemplated suicide.

Professor of Tibetan Buddhism, José Ignacio Cabezón, writes that “there is no question that A Critical Study of the Vinaya is in part biographical”.

He wrote to the monk asking to be sent the draft of his incomplete autobiography he had worked on, driven by a wish to complete the manuscript and write his own life story in his own words.

It remained in storage until it was discovered by author and biographer Liz Hodgkinson who used it to write her biography of Dillon titled Michael née Laura (1989).

An editor at John Murray responded positively, requesting an additional introductory chapter to serve as an introduction to Buddhism, as well as asking for details of Dillon's name.

"[97] After John Murray rejected the initial draft, Dillon found a literary agent—John Johnson—willing to take him onboard, who successfully submitted the manuscript to Routledge.

Although Dillon published under Jivaka and was not forced to reveal his former name, he did include a slightly falsified chapter in the book which described his boyhood and claimed he had served in the military during World War II.

[83] Out of the Ordinary was eventually published after two transgender theologists, Cameron Partridge and Jacob Lau, attended an event with Kennedy and heard that the manuscript still survived but was unpublished.