You are definitely asking the important questions. I appreciate it.
Who are the Captives? Let us look at the first verse of the chapter for context...
Ephesians 4:1
"I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,"
*We* are the captives! It is not just Christians but the entire Human Race that is being held captive. Jesus is leading us out of here.
Now, the verse states that Jesus gave the gifts of Apostles, Prophets, etc. So how did Jesus give these gifts? To grown adults?
No. He gave those gifts by going into the Lower Parts of the Earth...
Jeremiah 1:5
"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations."
Thus, Lower/Lowest Parts of the Earth has more than one meaning. It could be the Womb of Mary, yet it could also mean other Mothers in which Jesus visited the Spirits in Prison in their Wombs to give gifts and preach...
1 Peter 3:19
"By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison"
The Spirits in Prison are the Unsaved that are about to be Born Again into this world, thus Jesus needed to prepare them.
They were 'Children of Disobedience' like we were in 'Time Past' or Past Life...
1 Peter 3:20
"Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water."
Where was your bed when you were seven months old? I'm talking about *before* you were born?
Here was your bed...
Who was there preaching to you? Jesus was.
So yes, I believe that Torments is real as in the Rich Man and Lazarus. The Rich Man was 'repurposed' back on Earth, while Lazarus went to Heaven.
One could say they were the same person living two different lives at the same time, but I do not wish to blow anyone's minds with that concept just yet... lol.