I don't have a belief in this subject, nor am I a dualist, I'm just putting it out there.
Instead of a state of nothingness, is it within the realm of possibilities that the physical state (universe) was once non-physical? I'm not talking about Gods, shangri-las or thoughts, but an actual time when everything we know did not have any physicality attached to it. Could a transition from non-physical to physical take place and could there be evidence that might suggest such a thing did occur?
Another thing, take those scientists trying to determine if the universe is a computer simulation. If they ever find evidence that suggests we are in a simulation then the universe wouldn't be real for the simulators but would be for the simulated. How in hell could that happen?