just as the big bang sprung forth this universe starting at t=0 going in the positive time dimension, there is another part of the universe on the “other side” of the big bang (“before” the big bang), with time moving in the opposite direction, with entropy going the same way as well

Isn't this idea being taken seriously by the scientific community as of recently?

i’m not really sure how much i buy it, but Penrose’s Orch-OR theory of quantum consciousness is so fucking out there and bizarre but yet pieces seem to keep falling together out of nowhere.

Something like this is almost certainly true IMO, maybe not Penrose's exact idea but something to that extent. Check out "Why Materialism is Baloney" by Bernardo Kastrup, he outlines IMO very convincing arguments why a physicalist metaphysic is bullshit.