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Hidden Gems: Meet Kai Baylis of Bliss Boogie Productions and The Living Room Raleigh

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Kai Baylis.

Kai Baylis

Hi Kai, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I grew up in Va and loved my childhood in the country. Growing up, I had an adversity of wanting to follow the path of going to school, college, getting a job, marrying, and having kids. I just always believed there was something more to life! And really, for women at that time, especially in small towns, there was a strong story that you would need to marry well to take care of yourself, as well as a thriving double standard that was powerfully prevalent then. I couldn’t do the things I wanted or the things my brother was doing just due to the body I was in. Or if I did, I got pushback and frowned upon. Ultimately, my parents embraced my tomboy nature. I have always been active and loved moving my body. By 18, I found yoga. I also felt a strong sexual curiosity at an early age but found no openness or guidance—only an insistence on abstinence, which never resonated with me. This lack of dialogue and understanding about pleasure and sex, coupled with societal expectations, set me on a difficult path to comprehending fundamental human needs like connection and sexual intimacy. The prevailing attitude was that a woman “asking for it” was responsible for any consequences, leaving little room for consent or respect. Seeking an escape, I turned to drugs and drinking, which seemed to make the precarious situations I found myself in more manageable. As I grappled with these challenges, I realized I enjoyed the company of women more than men, adding another layer to my already complex journey. By my mid-20s, the inequality I experienced led me to embrace the label “gay” and fight for the basic rights we all deserve. This period was marked by hate crimes, including being chased on the highways and having my car vandalized. At 24, I reached a turning point and joined Alcoholics Anonymous. Rediscovering yoga and finding a Zen center provided the grounding I needed to reflect on my life. At 25 I became a licensed massage therapist. By 31, I was deeply immersed in yoga philosophy, particularly tantra yoga, and attended several schools before landing at Source School of Tantra Yoga. Where I studied for about ten years. I also studied all sorts of energy work, Ashtanga, Qigong, and raw food. My healing journey through yoga, meditation, bodywork, and tantra yoga has fueled a passion for creating spaces where people can explore their sexuality safely without shame or judgment. Everyone deserves the right to be educated as a sexual being in a respectful and equal environment. I am committed to ensuring that no one has to endure the struggles I faced to understand the most fundamental aspects of being human.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has been a very long and, at points, hard path to do this type of work in the South East. The magnolia curtain is a real thing. Southerns find it hard to talk about things related to sexual well-being. To this day, there are a limited number of practitioners who do this work in the area, so it is difficult for people to understand it is not sex work. Being a licensed massage therapist and a tantra yoga educator is also super confusing for people to understand that happy endings are not part of either practice. Folks have just not been exposed to this type of healing work. So, there is a limited experience for them to pull from and lots of education on it before I can even start to teach people. As well as challenges with advertising because of the words that can not be said in ads, leaving them vague, which leads to more confusion for people seeking this work. We put on our first festival this year and ran into folks in surrounding areas who were offended and scared of the programming we were putting on. So much so that we were forced to find a new location for future events. The upside to all this is that I have been able to straddle several areas of healing and craft non-intimating language around things that can be scary for people to share about. I have also been able to focus on just the safety and integrity that is needed for people to start to unfold in this work. Every obstacle has always moved me onto a better course than I had initially planned.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Bliss Boogie Productions and The Living Room Raleigh?
The Living Room Raleigh is the Triangle’s only private and semi-private tantra yoga studio. I specialize in the five pillars of wellness to create a transformative lifestyle practice. Relationships, Movement, Diet, Relaxation, and Rest are key to our wholeness. I excel in solo Tantra yoga practices and healing sessions. All solo sessions cover three basic areas. Meditation, movement, and sexual wholeness. They all work together in concert to provide you access to not only your inner landscape but also the patterns that are unconsciously hidden in your sex centers. This can be deeply healing and insightful work. Our meditation and movement look different than you would think of a traditional yoga or seated practice. So you don’t need to be flexible or able to sit still to apply this in your life. Becoming whole from the inside out and sharing with others is a powerful way to learn this practice. I also have private classes for couples and poly families.

Bliss Boogie is an annual eco-friendly, sober, educational festival that celebrates creativity, community, the human interconnected experience, sexuality, the joy of music and dance, and a celebration of being. The event is a three-day experience of live music, interactive creative installations, educational workshops, and unforgettable experiences. Bliss Boogie specializes in a safe, judgment- and shame-free environment for all beings.

Whether you are looking for private lessons, bodywork, understanding meditation more deeply, community, a place to meet people of like minds, a lifestyle of well-being, or a holistic mindset to approach your life with, We have got you covered.

Bliss Boogie Productions is also expanding and adding the Art of Pleasure Club. A pleasure and connection membership-based social community that will gather monthly. The Art of Pleasure Club intersects structured private studio and community festival times. Bringing together varying degrees of free time with concept and always intention. The pleasure club will also carry key themes like sanctuary and orientation. We will also have a network with our peers to learn, play, and explore with them.

What sets us apart from other brands is the integrity and thoughtfulness that go into my personal work, my 20 years of experience in my field, and the unique opportunity for hands-on healing work as a part of lifestyle practices.
In our festival, we take every attendee through an orientation process so they can learn a new way to engage with others while on the grounds (and hopefully in the wild). We have a sanctuary team with 20 therapists in case anyone is triggered and needs help. We are also a sober event. We have gathered some top global educators in their craft and field to share at our events. Moving sexual experiences out of this clinical or vulgar space into one that is educationally based and sexually nonsexual that the community can witness is often a first-time event. Witnessing this type of experience with peers can transform how we approach sexual conversation as a collective and start the process of rewriting our sexual narrative.

I would love for people to know there is SO much more than you have been told about your sex, relationship, and the role it plays in your health and happiness. And so much more in how we can relate to one another in a safe and sacred way. The life you dream of can happen, and we can help you find a safe place to explore what that may be for you.

Do you have any advice for those looking to network or find a mentor?
There is a saying you can only run as fast as the horses you run with. I have always looked for people who had a spiritual quality I desired to refine inside myself and spend time with them. If you want to be better at something, start playing with people who are better at that thing than you. Listen and open your heart. I have found that just showing up to help with even mundane tasks lets people just share and talk. Sometimes, that is where the real magic happens, and things that got them there are shared. Or ways that they approach things or systems they use. Those subtle differences in thoughts and approaches are huge once you get to a particular place. Build rapport, show up genuinely, and be of service when necessary.

Pricing:

  • Solo Tantra yoga sessions $250 an hour
  • Private couples classes $250-$550 for 2-3 hours
  • Bliss Boogie $360 for 3 day event
  • Art of pleasure club $100 a year . some events are also tickets for entry
  • Therapeutic massage and bodywork $150 for 60 mins

Contact Info:

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