TEHRAN, Iran -- Like many of Iran's Shiite Muslims, Babak Moradi has a "marja," a source of emulation who serves as life example and spiritual guide. But unlike many of his fellow Shiites, Moradi's marja is not a white-bearded ayatollah or a high-ranking cleric. He follows the lead of Jack Welch, former CEO of General Electric Co.

"I read his books, and I read articles about him," says the 24-year-old student of industrial management. "It's very important for me that he's old. But his attitude is very young. He's very creative. He's a manager. But first of all, he's a coach."

Tired of the aging clerics who run the country, many of Iran's young people are turning to new sources of spiritual sustenance. They're buying up and listening to soothing meditation and yoga tapes. They're turning to self-help books and self-anointed gurus who promise success and happiness at pricey, well-attended seminars. They're seeking new role models, and they are often finding them in the West.

Maryam, a 22-year-old photographer who asked that her last name not be published, recently bought and devoured a Farsi translation of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's autobiography.

"She was a normal girl and I wanted to know how a normal girl like me could be successful, too," Maryam said. "She was not rich, she was not beautiful. But she became the wife of the president and one of the most successful senators in the U.S."

Cultural analysts in Iran say the self-help phenomenon reflects an Iranian sense of isolation and misery in a clerical dictatorship that provides little political freedom and enforces harsh, albeit loosening, social controls.

"The people are in an environment where everything is closed off," said Moniroo Ravanipour, a critically acclaimed writer who ekes out a living selling experimental novels. "They live in a very unhealthy environment that they're unable to change. By reading these books they try to change themselves, to convince themselves that they're special."

Self-help books are the hottest items at the busy line of bookstores along the campus of Tehran University. Fifteen years ago, as Iran emerged from its dark years of post-revolutionary excess and war with Iraq, literature and poetry sold best, booksellers say. Seven years ago, as voters installed a party of reformists in power, political and history books were the rage.

Nowadays, one of the most popular writers is a familiar American self-help guru with a generous forehead.

"There are popular Iranian authors," said Hossein Sadeghi, a bookstore clerk. "But the hottest foreign writer is Anthony Robbins."

Similar homegrown gurus have sprouted, too, promising happiness and joy as an antidote to the stresses of a living in a politically and culturally conservative Islamic Republic. There are books on how to improve your memory in an hour, boost your business skills in a day and fix your relationship in a week.

"Not only do you have to respect others, but you have to respect yourself," Fakhrian Khoshiar writes in his new book, "Self-confidence in One Day."

"The Drive to Succeed" by Iranian-American fragrance maestro Bijan Pakzad is another best seller.

One series, called the "Icing on the Cake," includes corny affirmations and suggests things like practicing gratitude and charity. Sadeghi says he sells 120 "Icing" books each week.

Some self-help advisers charge $50 to $60 a head for workshop sessions, a substantial sum in Iran. A new magazine called "Success" includes ads for dozens of them, such as Dr. Nasrine Jazani, a management expert who gets paid as much as $500 a day to give employees motivational speeches.

"This millennium is about self-help," she says modestly. "And Iranian people are not excepted."

The country's ruling clerics have cast a suspicious eye on the growing self-help industry, but have cracked down sparingly. The Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance recently banned one volume, for instance, a translation of Daylle Deanna Schwartz's relationship book, "All Men are Jerks."