Creating strange/alien concepts?

The title kinda says it all really, have you created any philosophies, thought processes, or doctrines etc. that are really non human and perhaps difficult to describe or process in any of your works? It would also be nice to hear any advice on how you managed to understand it yourself when you were creating it. I'll go first with my main example;

I have a race called the Mulci who are a race made of metal (not any metal particular just the elemental concept), they have a sense about the types of metals. Because of this most of there culture and reference points are around metal which makes communication with other races difficult. They also have a different intelligence where they need to be taught to be creative and have idea's for themselves, this means the noble class are generally the only ones they bother to teach this to. But it does have some uses like the royal guard are told that they can't understand what the monarch is saying unless it's being directed at them, and they literally cannot allowing them to be present for otherwise private meetings.