Hollywood stars Demi Moore and Jennifer Aniston are reported to pay New York psychic Laura Day up to €6,500 a month for use of her 'intuition services'. And other celebrity admirers of the 50-year-old self-help guru are said to be Nicole Kidman and Uma Thurman.

Charlie's Angels star Moore was even on hand earlier this month to help launch Day's new book, How to Rule the World from Your Couch, and the actress described Day as "a remarkable woman with remarkable abilities".

So what is it about the slim blonde, whose latest book is being described as "the new The Secret" and is expected to be a global bestseller, that draws famous people to her and has made her part of Hollywood's inner golden circle? Moore went on to say about New York Times bestselling author Day: "For me, what is most remarkable about her is how she has taught me to believe in myself and my own intuition.

"By creating a practical format like the one in this book, she teaches everyone to see how intuition works on all levels of our lives, and how we can take back our personal power, instead of giving it away," Moore said.

Day prefers to be called an 'intuitionist' as opposed to psychic, and her success is based on her selling the idea that she can teach her devotees how to read and understand their own intuition, and to use their intuition to get the best out of their lives.

Day is said to have earned more than €10m in the past 15 years from her writings and from being at the end of a phone 24 hours a day for her clients.

In How to Rule the World from Your Couch, Day focuses on how, by simply sitting still and trusting our intuition, we can achieve more happiness and success, rather than by rushing around chaotically and grabbing at unsuitable opportunities.

She writes: "I introduce and explain the various levels on which pure intuition can operate and demonstrate how they are always applicable and alive -- even when, and especially when, you're just sitting there.

"Let me hit you with something else: have you ever experienced, in a fully visceral, soul-talking-directly-to-you kind of way, a shockingly clear, unbelievably useful piece of intuitive information, a tiny morsel of data that you simply, for the life of you, could not explain away?"

Breakdown

It is in these moments we can make the best decisions in our lives, and we can change our lives for the better, believes Day. And enticingly, the psychic to the stars also believes we can achieve all this from the comfort of our own sofas.

One wealthy client, The Break-Up star Jennifer Aniston, has said of Day: "We all sort of hope to have great women in our lives to look up to and she's just been that for me. She's just a great friend and a wise woman."

And the actress was on hand to help launch another of Day's bestsellers, Welcome To Your Crisis; How to Use the Power of Crisis to Create the Life You Want, in 2006.

In fact, so close are Aniston and Demi Moore to Day, the actresses are reportedly seeking suitable dates for Day following the breakdown of her 17-year relationship. And apparently Day has taken the stars up on a few dates they have set up for her.

Meanwhile, Day is also said to be firm friends with actress Uma Thurman, who held a celebration party after the publication of another of her books.

And Nicole Kidman has said of Day's 2001 bestseller, The Circle: How the Power of a Single Wish Can Change Your Life: "The Circle takes fate and puts it in the hands of anyone who has the courage to dream."

And the highly esteemed spiritual guru Deepak Chopra has described Day's book Welcome To Your Crisis as "brilliant and practical".

"If you follow the suggestions in her book, it will be impossible for you to avoid unparalleled success and fulfilment," he said.

A random search of websites for any evidence of academic qualifications held by Day proves fruitless. It seems the woman has simply conquered the world of celebrity by giving good intuitive advice to her clients.

Mistake

Perhaps it is her views on love and relationships which has made her such a star psychic.

Day has said: "Intuition is a tool, a natural ability that all human beings have. We're all using our intuition all of the time, whether of not we believe it. The problem is that, as easily as intuition can help us make positive choices, it can also provide the incorrect information that fuels our next mistake, leads us to pick the wrong doctor, stock or lover.

"There is something I call 'body heat telepathy'. What it asks you to do is use your intuition to go to the place in a person or field of people -- ie people I would share a good and loving life with -- and experience what in you they would respond to. You then need to practice being in those parts of yourself so that you can send a strong signal."

How to Rule the World from Your Couch, by Laura Day, published by Simon and Schuster, price €17

- Suzy Belton