NLP works a lot with the unconscious mind. Although there is nothing more miraculous as our conscious mind, a lot of what we do and the patterns that we follow lie in our unconsciousness. Hence, if you want to optimize yourself or others you have to deal with the unconsciousness.
Everything which enters consciousness is the last link in a chain, a closure. It is just an illusion that one thought is the immediate cause of another thought. The events which are actually connected are played out below our consciousness: the series and sequences of feelings, thoughts, etc., that appear are symptoms of what actually happens! – Below every thought lies an affect. Every thought, every feeling, every will is not born of one particular drive but is a total state, a whole surface of the whole consciousness, and results from how the power of all the drives that constitute us is fixed at that moment – thus, the power of the drive that dominates just now as well as of the drives obeying or resisting it. The next thought is a sign of how the total power situation has now shifted again.
Notebook I, autumn 1885 – spring 1886 paragraph 61