Hot and Hi - good link to rotor radio, Elan Head (cool name) talks a lot of sense. It comes down to training and practice in the end - as we all knew
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I have experienced the leans 'under the hood' but being in cloud is very different - you don't have the psychological safety blanket of being able to peek or just look up, you have to use the instruments and that can make it much more scary.
So add the fear factor to the vestibular illusions and you find yourself in a place that you need good, current skills to recover from.
Taking pilots who have only ever flown 'simulated' IF (under the hood or with foggles) into cloud is something I have done and still do on a regular basis - it often scares them fartless (no-one tells you it is bumpy inside the fluffy stuff) and taking control is another regular occurrence. However, once the fear dissipates and they gain the confidence of trusting the instruments and using the correct techniques, it is amazing the progress the students make.
If you want a challenge as an Instrument Flying instructor, try recovering from a student's 'leans-induced' unusual attitude where height, heading and speed (not to mention glideslope and centreline) have gone badly awry at 3 miles on the ILS, IMC with a 300' cloudbase.
