Expect to happen? Well, I sure am not expecting anything. I've learned from personal experience that expectations lead to disappointment in the long run. However, one can speak about understanding himself. If there should be one purpose as a human, I'd say this is it.
I have come to terms with death, even though it used to scare the living crap out of me. I would be a liar to say that I'm not still a little bit anxious about it, but who isn't?! But as I learned about the social conditioning and understood how I got to form all those "opinions", I now see death as some sort of graduation, if you like. Just as you graduate high school. You move on to the next level. Now, doing that without a body seems just natural to me, because this is how the universe I have observed works. I've accepted that.
Just as a tree lives 5, 100 or 300 years and then dies, so does the human body (observe any life form and you'll see this is how it is). But the tree will not die, in the sense that we perceive death. The physical form may disappear, yes, but the matter which is was once formed of will become food for the rest of the forest, and so will give birth to new plants. This is to say that the tree survives through everything that was once living in it, or fed off it. This is similar to our concept of history, if you like. We do the same with humans when they die: we keep a record of their acts, so that the person will "eternally survive". But you see, you don't have to bother to keep track of it in history, life IS recorded history all along.
I don't really understand what you mean by "karma is just a widely misconceived thing", but then you go on saying that "cause and effect sounds better to me". It's rather an observation; it isn't relative to what you like to believe. Karma IS the law of cause and effect. How is this misconceived? For example, buying implies selling. In the same manner, falling implies climbing, and just as well you can't have poverty without wealth or sadness without happiness. In the same manner, you can't have life without death. Reincarnation becomes possible when you view things this way. But just like in life, you can't have action without reaction. That is to say, we will have to assume responsibility for everything we do, be it in this life or another. It'd be just ignorant to think that death just "washes every sin away". This seems to be a [limited] way of life for many of today's society members, and it's clearly not working for anyone.
