- There are Eastern Catholics and they accept the Immaculate Conception.

That was my mistake. Most people here know I'm Orthodox. That is what I meant when I said Eastern.

- [T]he Orthodox Church as a whole has never considered the Immaculate Conception.

Yes, it has because you can find writings about that address the question of our non-belief. 

- It is not the Catholic belief that Mary was “a notch higher than humanity itself”. 

Weaseling. That is the logical extension of the immaculate conception--conceived without original sin. 

- There is actually a wide variety of opinion in Orthodoxy about these matters, both currently and historically. 

- I have never met an Orthodox person who ever accepted the immaculate conception or who took it seriously. 

I take it you’re Russian Orthodox?

Nope.