Hiccoughs verses dire existentialism - The cure. I discovered this by accident; seems to always work. I was exhaling a puff of smoke from a cigarette and hiccoughed. Ouch. So I put the cig down and remembered an article I read about exhaling until you feel like you are drowning to stop hiccoughing. That alone didn't always work. So I added an element of existentialism, or nirvana if you're buddhist, a sense of nothingness, focused solely on puckering my lips just like blowing a slow puff of smoke until I came to a complete stop, not breathing, for a few seconds, then that irritating feeling of loss of control left and breathing normally returned. I'd give anything to have known this 15 years ago when I spent 3 miserable sleepless days hiccoughing. May seem a little like mind over matter but get past it. It works.