Wow, some great replies.
My own experiences of accidental stalls have so far been limited to gliding, where it is easily possibly to stall when flying in thermals which can be a bit turbulent around the edges.
The first time this happened, the glider stalled and dropped the outside wing and just started falling. It was certainly a bit of an eye-opener.
However, it can take a while for anything nastier to develop, so even my somwhat delayed reponse in getting the stick forward managed to recover before the world started going round and round...
I am **much** more sensitive to "everything going quiet" now, along with the light controls, and probably much safer as a result.
Incidentally, having the student stall, spin and recover successfully is a prerequisite of getting solo in a glider, at least at our club. Besides, practicing spins is ***fun*** !!