 Many "espíritas" or "espiritistas" (Espiritismo practitioners) communicate with spirits in a gathering of like-minded believers known as a "misa" (mass, in Spanish).Most practitioners will have an altar called a "mesa" (table, in Portuguese and Spanish) or "mesas brancas" (white table, in Portuguese).These sessions are somewhat akin to the séances of American-style Spiritualism of the 19th to the present.